“I cry and I have panic attacks” – Corriere.it

“Some sad news. I leave the Bahlsen Group. I do this for personal reasons, and I’m sure Alexander Kuehnen will now be a great captain for our ship. To my current colleagues, and to those of the past, I want to say one thing (…) ». Thus begins the message posted three days ago on LinkedIn by Verena Bahlsen29 years old, the fourth generation of the German dynasty of butter biscuits which in 1893 laid the foundations of its success on a biscuit named after the philosopher Leibniz: it would have fed entire regiments. Verena Bahlsen leaves the company with 2,750 employees and a turnover of 540 million because the pressure was too much. “I was sometimes unkind, impatient, I interrupted people when I should have listened to them and I was cold and hard when I should have been softer,” she wrote in her long farewell to the 5,450 followers who follow her on the social network. And it is impossible, now, not to think of any of her who were more unhappy than her, like when she in 2019 she told her Bild that his company had “treated well” the Polish workers deported from Poland and Ukraine on cattle wagons in the midst of Nazi madness. “It happened before me, and in any case we paid the forced laborers exactly as much as the Germans and treated them well. Bahlsen was guilty of nothing», He had also admitted a little piqued, forcing the company to make a sudden apology.

The desire to earn

But it wasn’t the only unthinking statement of that year: at a marketing conference he’d said how happy he was to own a quarter of the family business and to have as a goal for the future to earn so much to be able to buy yachts. Today her dreams are downsized. She is to blame for the panic attacks, the crying fits, that sense of inadequacy and embarrassment for moments of fear and insecurity. With a bachelor’s degree in Communication from New York University and a Masters in Business Management from King’s College Londontoday Verena Bahlsen is preparing to break new ground. «I love brands and the way they become a vehicle for connection between human beings. I would like to take some time to learn how people come up with stories that then inspire others. I would like to learn to write, really. Do an internship in a movie set. I think I want to freelance in the sector of creating and positioning a brand ». He finally asks to warn her if there is someone looking for someone like her. She specifying, however, that she still needs a few more weeks “to surf, sit on a beach, be scandalously unproductive”. Her appeal is accompanied by a close-up of her in black and white, with a faint smile and her right hand covering her chin. “This photo was taken by my psychiatrist – has explained -. It seemed to me that it worked. ‘

Pride in the supermarket

Dozens of affectionate messages commented on his greeting, certificates of esteem for the courage to disconnect. But there was no lack of critical voices, of those who, for example, do not like that LinkedIn, a platform created in 2002 to foster professional contacts, becomes a stage of self-awareness. Especially since many other professionals, with the same problem, do not have the same chance as Verena to stop and start over. “Now when I go to the supermarket I stop in front of the cookie shelves and think about how much work is behind it. I feel pride and joy for such a beautiful result, ”she said. “Working with you has changed me“. Maybe for the better. We will see.