Braden Wallake posted his selfie on LinkedIn while trying to explain why he fired employees.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company has sparked a debate on the internet for the way he announced the firing of his employees on LinkedIn. Braden Wallake, the CEO of HyperSocial, posted a photo of himself crying while trying to explain why he had to fire some of his employees. In less than 14 hours, the post has received more than 13,000 likes and over 2,200 comments. Some users praised Mr Wallake for sharing his story, but others were not happy with the way he announced the decision.
Mr Wallake started the post by saying that this is “the most vulnerable thing” he will ever share. He took responsibility for his actions and said in the post that he went back and forth whether to post this or not.
“I’ve seen a lot of layoffs over the last few weeks on LinkedIn. Most of those are due to the economy, or whatever other reason. Ours? My fault. I made a decision in February to stop selling our main services and focus on a new service. A higher priced service,” Mr Wallake said in the post.
The CEO further said that it was the toughest things he ever had to do. “Days like today, I wish I was a business owner that was only money driven and didn’t care about who he hurt along the way.”
“I just want people to see, that not every CEO out there is cold-hearted and doesn’t care when he/she have to lay people off,” he added.
Mr Wallake said he loves all his employees. “I know it isn’t professional to tell my employees that I love them. But from the bottom of my heart, I hope they know how much I do. Every single one. Every single story. Every single thing that makes them smile and every single thing that makes them cry,” he said in the post.
“I’ve always hire people based on who they are as people. People with great hearts, and great souls. And I can’t think of a lower moment than this,” Mr Wallake added.
LinkedIn users flooded the comment section, some appreciating Mr Wallake and others criticising him.
“Love your honesty and your love and care for your employees. I look forward to seeing another post of yours where you celebrate those 1 or 2 or 3 employees that have been laid off though,” a user commented.
“Crocodile tearms, we sick from such ppl pretending human!” said another.
One user asked, “Why is it that it’s never the CEOs who make really poor decisions who are let go? It’s always the lower level employees who really need this job.”
