A digital marketing firm’s CEO was harshly criticized on LinkedIn after he made an unforgivable cringeworthy post, to which he attached a selfie that showed him in tears as he announced layoffs.
Braden Wallake, the CEO of HyperSocial, an online marketing services firm based in Columbus, Ohio, took to his LinkedIn profile page to announce the firings to the affected employees. Braden did not reveal how many employees the company has laid off.
Braden begins his post by first calling it “the most vulnerable thing he will ever share, admitting he had gone back and forth on whether or not to make the post. “We just had to lay off a few of our employees,” Braden announced.
In the post, Braden blamed himself for the dismissals saying they happened because of a decision he made earlier this year. He admitted that he and his team made that decision together but he was the one who led them into it. Braden wrote that he “stuck with that decision for far too long,” and had come to the decision to dismiss a few of the company’s employees, “the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do,” he said.
Braden continued his post saying that on days like today, he wished he was a money-driven CEO and didn’t care about who he hurt along the way. “But I’m not,” Wallake wrote, noting that he is sure there are hundreds and thousands of others like him
However, Braden remains positive that the company will always be a people-first business, “and we always will be,” he added.
According to the company’s page on LinkedIn, HyperSocial was founded in 2019 and has up to fifty employees.
“The ones you don’t see talked about,” he continued. “Because they didn’t lay off 50 or 500 or 5000 employees. They laid off 1 or 2 or 3. 1 or 2 or 3 that would still be here if better decisions had been made. 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. Their families. Their friends. Their hobbies. I’ve always hired 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,” Wallake wrote.
As of Friday morning, Wallake’s post generated more than 35,000 reactions, more than 7,400 comments, and virtually 700 shares Almost eighty percent of the reactions were negative.
“How about using your network to help those employees find new jobs by tagging them and putting them in the spotlight, as opposed to whining about making difficult decisions as a leader and posting a crying selfie? This is one of the most out-of-touch posts I’ve seen in a long time, one commenter wrote on LinkedIn.”
“What was the decision you took in February, what made you take that decision, and why were you ultimately wrong? That would be helpful,” one commenter asked.
“I plan to shine more light on this once the craziness dies down. Hold me to it,” Braden replied.
“I signed onto this platform to see if this was real or not, another user wrote. I sincerely hope it’s a joke because this is the most cringeworthy thing I’ve seen on here. And that’s saying a lot. Shame on you either way. Do better.”
“Thanks for the shame. I’ll take it everywhere with me as I hope my future life decisions have your approval since you also deal with the outcomes of my decisions,” Braden replied.
One user advised Braden to stop replying to the backlashes: “Stop responding. You are better than this. You are fueling the fire with people who view the world as half-full. You did what you felt was right. End of story. I respect you for your vulnerability as a leader but let it be, and just BE,” the user wrote.
