[wojt_eu]

Personal anecdote: I've experienced worrying about finishing project so that my two employees would still have a job next month and so that people who invested their personal savings in the project would get at least most of it back. I have also experienced worrying about getting next check as a freelancer supporting a family.

The latter was far worse – even though I knew we had a family safety-net.

I think it's reasonable to have more sympathy to problems of people struggling for well-being of their own family than "it's lonely at the top" kinds of problems.

"I have fired people. It is brutal. I have been fired. It's worse. So managers, please: Never solicit sympathy for the pain of firing people." – Reginald Braithwaite.