CEO is Clueless - Anonymous employee BPM-PR Employee Review

Generally our HR Associate responds to reviews but I wanted to take an ample amount of time to not only reply but to take this one in. We have traditionally been an exceptionally small team and a very close one. As a CEO I try to handpick and delicately train my team to perfection so this review caused me to wrack my brain and made me a bit emotional-- particularly coming back from COVID during which we had to unexpectedly let go of many loved staff due to exceptional circumstances like many small businesses. The thing is if you were a past employee of ours it could not have possibly been in 2021 as all of our team still happily remains intact, and if you were in 2020 Im so sorry that we had to let you go. Covid was a horrific time for most small business owners and you will never understand the tossing, turning and tears that came with decisions that had to be made. Those decisions hurt and were not easy and I am truly sorry if it caused you any hurt from our end. It did not make a difference if someones work was wonderful---we were simply forced to let many marvelous team members go like millions of small businesses. Now, If you were an employee prior... maybe years prior, Im sincerely sorry that you felt this way. I wish that you had knocked on my door, sat down and had an honest conversation. Since you did not and if you were an actual past employee and chose this as your route of venting I would like to say that I hope no one ever has this experience as an employee of ours ever again. I would also like to stress that unfortunately not everyone will understand our business processes, however as I have given this review time to reply to....it has been quite enough time to certainly prove that this is not the case about my company, workplace, or our practices given our Forbes award and the various awards that we have won and been recognized for. Not only for ourselves but for our long standing & exceptional clientele. As you grow in business and your career I do hope that you understand how companies might ebb and flow in a crisis or pandemic and the high expectations that companies do have when they work at a high award winning level. Particularly those as credentialed as we are. I wish you the best of luck in your future PR career. ~M.T.