Thanks. . . but no thanks.

I discovered a phenomenon in the social networking world that I need a little help solving. It's what I can only deem as the 'Thanks, but no thanks rule'. (Copyright may be pending on this so proceed with caution.) Here's the shake down:

Say you are on a professional networking site where people can look up your resume and job history and all of that good stuff. In addition to these already obvious benefits (wink, wink), they can also 'link-up' and say that they know you just by being a member of the site. Well, maybe I'm the only one with this issue but just because I know you doesn't necessarily mean I want everyone to know that I know you. . . especially in the business sense. Is this making sense? Could I use the word 'sense' just one more time?

So here's the dilemma: I get an email request from a person that I work with that is inviting me to connect with them through this professional networking site and I don't want to. Here's my thought: "I know your work ethic and I know that it's not good and just in case other people know that about you as well, I don't want them to know that I am tied to you which may give off the impression that 'Yes, I am proud to have worked with ______.'" I'm just not ready to commit to this.

So, the question comes - what do I do now? They had to purposely invite me to connect so they know that they did it and that their email is just sitting in my inbox begging "Read me. . . open me. . . accept me". (Can you hear the little 'inbox voice' I'm trying to convey?) If I don't connect, they'll know that I really have no interest and it may offend them. Do I send a response saying "As soon as you're smart, I'll consider it"? Do I pretend like I never got it? The ideal situation would be if they sent this heathen request to a long list of people and they won't remember me. . . but odds of that are not good. Knowing my luck, there are two people on their list - me and their mom, and mom was really quick to accept.

WHAT NOW?