Top Stories of the Week: Facebook Lands Instagram ... and Leaves Early

Facebook won the most-shared-story week with its $1 billion purchase of Instagram. Of the Top 10 articles shared by professionals, four were about the purchase. But on a much more personal level, the social network also made news. This time, though, it was COO Sheryl Sandberg's admission that she leaves work at 5:30 p.m., has been doing so since she had her first child, and is no longer ashamed to admit it.

Top 5 most-shared articles by LinkedIn members (April 5, 2012 — April 12, 2012) Follow @LinkedInToday

  1. What Recruiters Look At During The 6 Seconds They Spend On Your Resume (Business Insider)
  2. Facebook Buys Instagram for $1 Billion (Mashable)
  3. Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion, Turns Budding Rival Into Its Standalone Photo App (TechCrunch)
  4. Pinterest is Now the No. 3 Social Network in the U.S. (Mashable)
  5. Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Work at 5:30 Every Day - And You Should Too (Mashable)

(For the full list, visit the LinkedIn Today Top Stories of the Week page)

For years, says Sandberg, she used to cover her bases by sending emails late at night or early in the morning so that coworkers would realize she was working very, very hard — despite not being at her desk.

I did that when I was at Google, I did that here, and I would say it's not until the last year, two years that I'm brave enough to talk about it publicly. Now I certainly wouldn't lie, but I wasn't running around giving speeches on it.

But now she's definitely talking about it. And the result has been almost a global exhale. Wrote UK-based program manager Ashley Hodges in a LinkedIn update:

Our office is hugely guilty of this. Actually told myself post Christmas I'd try to leave before 7:30 more often.

In India, a HR manager named Pratibha Singh sent a LinkedIn update in response with just one word"Commendable." The Sandberg story comes on the heels of March 30th's most popular story list, which saw an article about the uselessness of working more than 40 hours rocket to near the top of the charts. It seems the Great Recession-fueled years of workers doing more with (and for) less has reached a point that people are questioning the value of those cube-chained hours.

Here are the most-shared stories by professionals in the following industries: