One of the more difficult things that any person in a position of responsibility will have to do is fire someone. Admittedly, there are times when it happens for justifiable reasons but at other times, it’s just something that happened behind the scenes.
That is what happened recently when CEO Bradon Wallake had to let two of his employees go. After doing it, he wanted to show how he wasn’t a “coldhearted” person and that he had feelings, so he posted a tearful selfie.
Wallake wrote the following on LinkedIn along with that picture: “This will be the most vulnerable thing I’ll ever share. 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. But I’m not. So, 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.”
This really touched a nerve with many people, and they weren’t afraid to let Wallake know about it. In fact, he got lambasted in the comments. If ever there was a reason to cry, it would be after the sound thrashing that the commenters provided.
Perhaps one of the interesting parts of his post is that he blamed the layoffs on himself. It wasn’t due to the economy or any type of financial shift, it was because he made a bad decision and stuck with it for too long.
He said: “And because of those failings, I had to do today the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
It’s bad enough if you have to lay somebody off privately but then to openly expose them and their situation in a public forum in order to make yourself feel a little better is unthinkable.
No wonder he got the backlash. However, in an interview with Vice, Wallake said: “This was a low time in my life. [I] was not attempting to compare my low time to the laid off employees’ low time, because theirs is much worse.”
In the end, Wallake did share some information about one of the employees he fired. The man, Noah Smith, ended up getting several interviews and shouldn’t be jobless for long!
The employee that he out it is also defending him, saying: “To those who would look 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 if you think working more hours ONLY to make more money is the most valuable way to spend your time.”