Even years into building a business, some moments can still hit founders harder than expected – and for one entrepreneur, employee resignations remain among the most emotionally difficult parts of leadership.
Rachna Baruah, founder and CEO of strategic communications firm Madchatter, opened up about the lesser-discussed emotional toll of running a company in a post on LinkedIn.
Baruah, whose firm operates out of Dubai and Mumbai and was founded in 2017, shared how painful it was when her first few employees resigned, despite being genuinely happy for their growth.
“As a founder, I still remember the heartbreak when my first few employees resigned,” she said.
Baruah also said that while she felt proud watching them move on to better opportunities, the experience also triggered deep self-doubt.
“They had grown up, moved on to better opportunities, and I was ecstatic for them,” she wrote.
But behind that outward support, Baruah said she struggled privately.
“But then the quiet flip side that nobody knows of was also that I didn’t leave my bed for the next three days, face dug into my pillow, somewhere feeling like it was a reflection of me having failed somewhere. As a leader, as a boss, as a human (yes, overthink much?)”
One of the most difficult lessons over the past nine years, Baruah said, has been learning not to interpret resignations as personal failures.
She said accepting that employees will eventually move on has required building emotional resilience – something she continues to work on even today.
“In the last nine years though, this is one of the tougher and more painful muscles I have had to build – to take resignations from the team at face value and to acknowledge that people will eventually move on,” she wrote.
Despite departures, Baruah said she has made an effort to remain connected with former employees and maintain those relationships long after they leave the company.
“I maintain friendships and try to stay involved with all ex-Madchatter folks, whether they like it or not, LOL,” she added.
Even after years of experience, therapy and personal growth, she admitted that some resignations still catch her off guard: “I assumed by now I had developed somewhat of a rhino skin but some resignations still have the capacity to sucker punch you out of nowhere (despite all the therapy and ‘healing’) and throw you back to the uncertainty of the 25-year-old who saw her first flock out of the nest.”
Baruah also highlighted another rarely discussed challenge of entrepreneurship: managing the constant emotional swings that come with leadership.
She said creating emotional boundaries became essential not just for professional functioning, but for preserving her own mental well-being.
“One of the hardest things I have had to do is to create a shield from the hourly emotional upheavals, for my own sanity,” she wrote.
Rachna Baruah concluded her post with a thought that resonated with many founders and business leaders online: “Nobody talks about that in entrepreneurship.”
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Published On:
Jun 23, 2026 18:06 IST