CEO sparks debate after sharing crying selfie on LinkedIn to announce company layoffs: ‘Grow up’

A business owner and CEO has sparked a debate after sharing a tearful selfie on LinkedIn while announcing layoffs at his company.

Braden Wallake, the CEO of business-to-business marketing agency HyperSocial, shared the emotional post on LinkedIn on Tuesday, where he described it as the “most vulnerable thing” he will “ever share”.

“This will be the most vulnerable thing I’ll ever share. I’ve gone back and forth whether to post this or not. We just had to layoff a few of our employees. 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,” the chief executive officer wrote. “I made a decision in February and stuck with that decision for far too long. Now, I know my team will say that ‘we made that decision together,’ but I lead us into it.

“And because of those failings, I had to do today, the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

In the candid post, Wallake then went on to claim that he wished he were a “business owner that was only money driven and didn’t care about who he hurt along the way,” but that he is not.