'Crying CEO' shared news of grandmother's death on LinkedIn. Why he was slammed

Braden Wallake, CEO of social networking companies Hyper Social and Hyper Sphere. (Image: @bradenwallake/LinkedIn)

When Braden Wallake took to social media to open up about the layoffs in his company and shared a crying photo of him he was ridiculed.

Wallake, the CEO of social networking companies Hyper Social and Hyper Sphere, took to LinkedIn to write what he called "the most vulnerable thing I'll ever share” and took responsibility for the layoffs while being panned for sharing the unwanted photograph with the post in August this year.

And now, he has taken to LinkedIn again to announce the death of his grandmother.

“My grandma passed away today. I got the text from my mom, closed my computer, and headed straight over to her house. While driving to my moms, I was reminded days like today are why I do what I do. Because there’s more to life than working,” Wallake began the post. Soon he delved more into work culture than his grandmother’s recent death.

He continued: “See, hustle culture has developed us into thinking that we have to choose between success at work OR having a personal life. I’ve been there. Especially for business owners, entrepreneurs, sales people, and sales leaders. I’ve had the sleepless nights. The skipping fun things for work. The missing important events.”

He concluded the post with why he started HyperSocial.

“But the reason I started HyperSocial was to help these same people build their business in the background so they can go have fun, spend time with family, do the important things that matter besides work, be next to people that matter,” he wrote.

He was slammed soon after in the comments.

“This post went from the bad news of grandma passing to promoting the company. Sad for you in many ways,” wrote one user to which Wallake responded: “Not promoting the company. But the ability to step away for important things is the why behind what I do. It's a healthy reminder to keep going.”

“Thinking about the company minutes after the news of grandma passing away, and then making a post about it on LinkedIn is a strange approach to stepping away,” read another comment.

In another comment, Wallake justified by post by saying: “That's what the post says. To be there for my family during hard times is the most important thing. But there are other important things too. Friends are important. Doing fun things are important.

It wasn't a comparison of what's more important, my grandma's passing or playing soccer. That's just the way you somehow weirdly, backwardly interpreted it.”

Wallake, in news in August, had also explained why he chose to make a public announcement about laying employees off: "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."