The single most common fear members report before joining isn't dishonesty on the platform — it's running into a colleague. Here's exactly how we prevent that.
At signup, list your hospital or health system, your firm, and your training program (residency, fellowship, or law school).
Anyone who lists the same affiliation is automatically removed from your search results — and you from theirs — in both directions.
Change jobs, and your exclusion list updates immediately. Past affiliations can be kept excluded even after you've moved on.
You name your employer(s) — hospital or health system for doctors, law firm for lawyers — plus your residency program, fellowship, or law school if applicable. That's it; we don't need department or team-level detail.
Automatic for exact-name matches (same hospital system, same firm). Our verification team also does a manual review pass during onboarding to catch near-matches — e.g. two campuses of the same health system listed under slightly different names.
Update your workplace in your profile settings and the exclusion list updates immediately. Anyone previously shielded because of your old employer becomes visible again unless another reason excludes them.
We can't eliminate that risk entirely — no platform can, once two people are talking. What Coworker Shield does is remove the far more common risk: your colleague simply seeing your profile appear in their search results at all. Beyond that, standard privacy tools (photo blur until approval, anonymous browsing) reduce the chance of casual recognition.
You can list past affiliations you'd still like excluded (e.g. your residency program even after you've moved to attending practice) — this isn't limited to your current workplace.
Yes. Every member is asked for their workplace and program during onboarding, and exclusion is applied automatically — there's no separate toggle to remember to turn on.