"LinkedIn used to carry an unspoken rule: don't say anything that could make your employer uncomfortable. Even professionals who were known to push the boundaries were self-censored when it came to posting on the platform. The cost of speaking freely felt higher than the upside. Layoffs changed that equation. When career paths became less predictable, the downside risk of being visible collapses. People who had just lost jobs or watched their entire team disappear suddenly were no longer optimizing for internal perception and honest reflection."
"My data shows that my vulnerable posts about things like my ADHD, work failures, and real-life worries had 3x the engagement as my marketing advice. In fact, 90 percent of my top-performing content is personal storytelling, not polished thought leadership. Turns out honesty outperforms polish every time. People don't want to follow a brand-they want to follow a person."
During the 2022–2024 wave of layoffs, LinkedIn shifted from a digital resume warehouse to a public thinking space with fewer performative announcements and more vulnerability. Job insecurity reduced the cost of visibility, and professionals stopped optimizing for internal perception. Layoffs changed the incentive structure and made personal context and candid reflection more common. Creators who shared failures, neurodiversity, and real-life worries saw dramatically higher engagement. Vulnerable, personal storytelling outperformed polished thought leadership, and many people began following individuals rather than curated brand personas, prioritizing authenticity over polish.
Read at Inc
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