I worked at a pitiful job that offered no promotional opportunities, paid crap, toxic work environment, had horrible hours, ruined my passion and self esteem. It was my first job out of college, It so dramatically affected my life I would have been better off being homeless. I tried to leave soon after I started but could not get another employer to respond after taking the position at this toxic place. After too many years I found the only way to escape them was to leave the company without a fallback. I wasted years of my life at this job and like any bad relationship I want it to be in the past. I can not use them as a reference and I don't even want to be associated with the company any longer. So I have hibernated my LinkedIn profile and do not plan on using it in the future. Companies should hire workers to do a job. I should not need to provide my entire work history just to have a job offer on the table. Most positions don't need previous history to do the job. Do you really need four years of experience in retail to get a retail job? Lets put job seekers back in their place. If you want a worker prove to ME you are worth forty hours of MY week. Maybe it should be thirty two, but that's a story for another time.