On August 9, 2022, Braden Wallake posted a selfie of himself in tears on LinkedIn. He was CEO of HyperSocial, a marketing agency in Columbus, Ohio, and he had just laid off two employees. The post began: “This will be the most vulnerable thing I’ll ever share.” He wrote, “I just want people to see, that not every CEO out there is cold-hearted.”
The post drew more than 41,000 reactions and comments in two days. Axios reported that responses ranged “mostly from support and empathy to bewilderment and disgust.” One commenter wrote, “It’s not about you.” Other LinkedIn users posted parody selfies of themselves crying, often tagged #vulnerabilities.
In a follow-up post, Wallake wrote, “I’m not sorry for the post.” He offered to use it to help laid-off workers find jobs.