[k1t]

I think the article is a bit weird. To commiserate means to empathize with another's suffering, such as the getting dumped by your girlfriend example in the article.

But the article launches (literally the first sentence) into "As people become managers, it’s quite common for their team members to want to commiserate with them." as though it is just obvious that all managers have some sadness that their team members need to help them through, which is obviously nonsense.

So yes, it's unusual phrasing.