'One of the darkest days': Man recalls firing 25 people consecutively in viral post. Internet reacts

While the post resonated with many on LinkedIn, it also found its way to LinkedIn Lunatics, a Reddit community that frequently comments on corporate storytelling online.

Sampark Sachdeva, a corporate trainer and founder of Sampark Se Sampark, recently became the subject of wide online discussion after sharing a deeply personal reflection on LinkedIn. His post, which centred on the emotional weight of overseeing mass layoffs, gained traction beyond the professional networking site and was subsequently debated on Reddit.

Sachdeva recounted what he described as one of the hardest days of his corporate journey—the moment he was asked to let go of 25 employees in succession. The recollection aimed to highlight the unseen human cost that accompanies such decisions, both for the individuals affected and for the managers tasked with delivering the news.

He began by recalling the first employee he had to meet that day: a single mother. As he described, a tear fell from her eye as she realised she was about to lose her job. According to Sachdeva, the process was tightly controlled, with managers instructed to remain detached—no expressions of sympathy, no apologies—just a set of directions: collect ID cards, take back laptops and inform staff that HR would follow up.

“It remains one of the darkest days of my corporate career. The day I was asked to fire 25 people…” he wrote.

Behind every name on the list, he said, was a story of personal struggle. He remembered a father concerned about supporting his children, a young employee anxious about a new home loan, and another who had recently relocated in search of better opportunities. One individual even reminded him that it had been his hiring decision which had once brought them into the company, and now he was present again, this time marking their exit.

At the close of the day, Sachdeva admitted that the burden overcame him. He shed tears privately, hiding them from the remaining staff, and later that night was unable to sleep, weighed down by guilt and helplessness. The episode, he reflected, left him feeling less like a leader and more like a messenger of the system’s decisions.

In his post, Sachdeva sought to draw a broader message from the episode: that while organisations often prioritise efficiency and resilience, they must not lose sight of compassion. Employees, he wrote, should never be reduced to figures on a payroll, as they each carry families, responsibilities and aspirations outside office walls.

He stressed that leadership extends beyond decisions to the language used and the silences maintained. Even years later, he added, the faces of those 25 employees had not faded from memory. The image that lingered most powerfully was that of the first tear—what he described as a lasting reminder that leadership also involves living with the consequences of decisions.

While the post resonated with many on LinkedIn, it also found its way to LinkedIn Lunatics, a Reddit community that frequently comments on corporate storytelling online. There, some users viewed the post differently, questioning whether it appeared too carefully staged.

Some commenters accused Sachdeva of using a tragic workplace moment as a vehicle for self-promotion. One compared the style of the post to “influencer theatrics”, while another questioned the image itself, joking about whether he might have asked a dismissed employee to take the picture.

Others doubted the accuracy of his claims, suggesting that the number of people dismissed might have been inflated for dramatic effect. A widely upvoted comment said the photograph made him look less like a manager reflecting on a job loss and more like “a war veteran staring into the distance after combat”.