Five years ago, the most sought-after business skillset was being an effective networker. To rise in the corporate world, one needed at least 25,000 contacts – and having 40,000 or more was ideal.
Today – with working from home and avoiding any contact with other people now the standard – having any contacts at all is considered career suicide. Thus, each week, 10,000 de-networking events across the US are helping up and comers shed contacts and get their careers back on track.
Monica Fuller started Adios! in Cleveland last September. Each Thursday, 1000 de-networkers gather in the main ballroom of the Chystophe Hotel to drink felmer wine, nibble on quall crescents, avoid looking directly at anyone else, and do whatever it takes to make contacts go away
“If you ask me, the good old fashioned insult works best,” says Fuller. “Lines like ‘You’re really packing on the pounds!’ may seem harsh, but they can get you taken off someone’s contact list in a second.” She also recommends the fake shoulder tap – tapping someone on the right shoulder than running over to their left side.
Jeanine Liscomb, a procedures monitor who attends Adios! every week, says she’s used the phone app GONE with great success. “You bump your phone against someone else’s,’” she says, “and their info disappears from yours and yours from theirs.” (An updated version of the app enables the user to transfer all their contacts to the phone of a business rival, impeding their own de-networking efforts).
Mark Handover, another weekly attendee, says he’s gone from 67, 000 contacts a year ago to just one today – and is currently developing a plan to get rid of it by the end of the year.
“I just need to figure a way to do it without hurting my mother’s feelings,” he says.
