Braden Wallake, CEO of HyperSocial Publishing on Linkedin.
Source: LinkedIn
A CEO has sparked a huge debate online after posting a selfie of himself crying on LinkedIn following layoffs at his company.
Braden Wallake, who runs the Ohio-based business-to-business marketing agency Hypersocial, shared the image on Wednesday.
Since then, the post has received more than 6,700 comments and almost 33,000 reactions.
“This is going to be the most vulnerable thing I’ll ever share. I’ve gone back and forth on whether to post this or not. We just had to lay off some of our employees. I’ve seen a lot of layoffs in the last few weeks on LinkedIn. Most of them are due to the economy, or any other reason. Ours? My fault.” Wallake wrote alongside the image showing tears streaming down her face.
Wallake says he made a decision in February that ultimately led to the layoffs. He has not yet explained what this decision was, but he said on LinkedIn that he planned to do so in the future.
Describing layoffs as “the hardest thing” he has ever had to do, Wallake said he loved his employees and wanted to be “a business owner who only cared about the money and didn’t care who he hurt along the way.” .
‘Yes, I am the CEO who cries’
Some LinkedIn users mocked Wallake’s post, calling him “out of touch” and “shame-worthy” or suggesting he should focus on helping his former employees rather than how the situation had affected him.
“Please. Firing people is horrible for you, but more horrible for them. It’s about taking care of their well-being, not lamenting your own tastes. This is impolite, gratuitous, insensitive and in bad taste. Grow up, take care of those people you claim to be so worried about, own up to your mistakes in private and stop being so narcissistic,” one commenter wrote.
Others supported Wallake, saying they understood that firing people is an emotional process and praised his openness.
This includes one of his former employees, Noah Smith, who defended his former boss and said he would only want to work for managers like him.
“For those who want to hire me, I’m only interested in working for people like Braden Wallake who has a positive outlook on life. I’m not interested in working for you guys if you think you work longer hours ONLY to make more money.” It’s the most valuable way to spend time.”
Wallake followed up his original message with a follow-up post, saying, “Hello everyone, yes I’m the CEO crying. No, I didn’t mean to do anything for me or victimize myself. I’m sorry it seemed that way.” .”
“It was not my place to publicly reveal the names of the employees,” he continued. “What I want to do now is try to improve this situation and start a thread for job seekers.”
Hypersocial was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
A broader trend?
Source: www.cnbc.com