In the USA, especially as technology companies continue to reduce their employment, the way a CEO announced the layoffs drew great reaction.
Braden Wallake, Founder and CEO of Ohio-based digital marketing firm HyperSocial, announced that he had to lay off some of his employees by sharing a crying selfie on his LinkedIn account.
Wallake shared the following message along with a photo of her crying:
This will be the most fragile thing I will share. I’m torn between sharing this or not. We had to lay off a few of our employees.”
‘IT IS NOT ECONOMY’
“I’ve seen a lot of layoffs on LinkedIn over the past few weeks. Most of them are due to the economy or some other reason. What about ours? It’s my fault. I made a decision in February and I stuck to it for too long. I know you’re going to say, ‘We got it together,’ but I led us to this situation.
Because of this failure, today I had to do the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. We have always been and always will be a company that says ‘people first’.”
‘I WISH I ONLY CARE ABOUT MONEY’
“On days like today, I wish I owned a company that only cared about money and didn’t care who it hurt along the way. But I’m not.
I want people to see that not all CEOs are coldhearted and some don’t care when they have to fire people. I’m sure there are hundreds, thousands of people like me. These are not talked about because they laid off 50, 500 or 5000 people. They took out 1,2 or 3 people.
I know it’s unprofessional to tell my employees I love them. But from the bottom of my heart, I hope they know how much I love them.”
‘HELLO I’M CRYING CEO’
Wallake’s message received a great response on LinkedIn. Some users asked why they didn’t cut their own salary until the crisis passed, while others said it was important how the dismissed employees felt, not the CEO.
Wallake, who made a statement on LinkedIn after the intense reactions, said, “Hi everyone, yes, I am the crying CEO. It was not my intention to make the subject relevant to me or to appear victimized. I am sorry that it was understood that way.”