“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," he wrote.
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“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. We've always been a people first business. And we always will be," he added.
“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," he went on to say.
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“I'm sure there are hundreds and thousands of others like me. The ones you don't see talked about. 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.
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While the post seems to be a genuine take on what the CEO was feeling about the lay-off, many of the LinkedIn users found it ‘cringeworthy’. To this, Wallake replied: “To me it’s cringeworthy too, to be honest. Like, I posted a picture of myself crying. I’ve laughed at people on other social media platforms who have posted pictures of themselves crying. And then I did it. I have no doubt this post can be a useful tool to either keep those employees or help them find better positions."
Soon, numerous users came up in his support and backed his ‘intention’ behind the post. Many of them identified with him and the feelings he was going through.
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“Please don’t be discouraged by the rude comments. Regardless of your intentions with the photo, I’m sure you are hurting and feeling a lot of guilt right now. I can only say that the people who were rude below would never have the courage to actually talk to you like that in person. On the contrary, they’d probably pat you on the back or talk about you behind your back. That’s the reality we live in," wrote one user.
“You seem to be taking responsibility (ownership) for what occurred while committing to learning from this experience so it doesn’t happen again. That is a big part of leadership," wrote another.
“Takes a ton of courage to share this. How many of your current employees would be unemployed if you didn’t own a business? You just own your business and employ many. Tough decisions have to be made at times," another user wrote.
