You may know the story of Braden Wallake, who laid off two (yes, 2) employees at some joint called “HyperSocial” and then cried on LinkedIn about it. Reaction was generally swift and fierce, with most people alluding to it as “performative,” which indeed it is. This all caused The New York Times to write an article entitled “When Your Boss Is Crying, but You’re the One Being Laid Off.” This is actually a much more complicated topic than most people are willing to dive into. Let’s break down a few things.
First: many people still do not think emotions are a part of the workplace. This might be changing with younger generations, but I wouldn’t think it’s changing writ large. In most jobs, and sadly this is especially true for females, if you show your emotions, you’re likely to eventually get terminated on a revenue dip. Most people in work settings view work as about tasks, productivity, success, achievement, beating rivals, etc. — and those ideas about work are even more ingrained in executive-level people. Tasks have long since mattered more than people, and many companies actually over-staff because they want their mid-line managers and executives to be able to manage by “warm body,” which means they emerge from their office or a conference room and say “You there, are you busy? Get on this thing for me.” COVID disrupted that style of management more than…
