Agreed - I think that advice is an empathy thing when dealing with the employees you're laying off. Basically when you're laying someone off there's a natural response to try and talk about how bad you feel having to do it too - maybe to try and relate or bond over a shitty situation?
It's an unfortunate natural response though because if you were truly empathizing with them you'd recognize that your feelings in that situation (since you're in the much better position of still having your job) don't make them feel better, but make them feel worse. I'd guess the problem is that comparing your state in any way to there's causes a more negative reaction because they're not in a place where they'd want to empathize with you - the approximate cause of their current lay off.
Outside of the interaction with the employees you're laying off (which I imagine is not the intended audience of this post) I think it's okay to talk about how it feels to have to do this. To the employees though, you can really only say that it's a bad situation and you'll do what you can to make it the least bad possible.
It's an unfortunate natural response though because if you were truly empathizing with them you'd recognize that your feelings in that situation (since you're in the much better position of still having your job) don't make them feel better, but make them feel worse. I'd guess the problem is that comparing your state in any way to there's causes a more negative reaction because they're not in a place where they'd want to empathize with you - the approximate cause of their current lay off.
Outside of the interaction with the employees you're laying off (which I imagine is not the intended audience of this post) I think it's okay to talk about how it feels to have to do this. To the employees though, you can really only say that it's a bad situation and you'll do what you can to make it the least bad possible.