The 2013 Communicator of the Year award winner Kelly Blazek had to return her award with an apology after her harsh email rejecting a LinkedIn invitation went viral. The unusually strong worded email was received by a 25 year old job seeker.

Diana Mekota, a 25 year old job seeker had sent a LinkedIn invite to Kelly Blazek after learning that the veteran media professional was the creator of the Cleveland job bank with over 7300 subscribers to help people find job leads in Northeast Ohio.

Kelly Blazek reportedly has had a policy of not accepting LinkedIn invitations from people she did not know. But what had the social media buzzing was the harsh email she sent in response to the invitation.

In her email Kelly Blazek told Diana that the 25 year old was still "green on how business connections work with senior professionals" and that the young job seeker had "nothing to offer."

Kelly Blazek felt that the LinkedIn invite was only beneficial to Diana and her invite was "inappropriate" and "tacky." She also suggested the young job seeker to join another job bank in town but was also quick to point out that there wasn't one.

Calling it a "humility lesson for the year" she asked Diana not to approach senior professionals again just to build her network to land a job. Support has poured in online for Diana since she shared the rejection email online.

More people have come out and shared their email rejection emails from Kelly Blazek. Many people point out that not all senior practitioners are like that and are happy to help out when they can, some have even offered to share Diana's resume with their network.

Kelly Blazek has reportedly taken down her Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and according to Diana she has also sent an email apologising. The International Association of Business Communication Cleveland chapter has shared that the board of directors of the organisation and Kelly Blazek have mutually agreed that she will return the award and will not use the Communicator of the Year designation in any way going forward.

She has also apologised to the members of the Cleveland chapter of The International Association of Business Communication. The organisation on their web site has pointed out that Kelly Blazek is not a member of the organisation.

Click here to read the full email by Kelly Blazek to Diana Mekota.