I added my divorce to my LinkedIn profile — here's why

• Karl Dunn put his divorce on his LinkedIn résumé to highlight the skills it helped him develop.
• Divorce taught him financial planning, anger management, endurance training, and more.

Back in 2017, I was working as a global creative director at a multinational advertising agency when I told my husband I wanted a divorce. Nothing prepared me for the events that would follow.

My divorce was the worst job I've ever had. And make no mistake, it was an unpaid job with unreasonable hours. So, like any job I've had, I decided to put my divorce on my LinkedIn résumé. The moment I pressed the "save" button and added it to my profile, I knew it was the right decision because the feelings of shame went away.

I've been properly divorced for five years. Even though my divorce was often a painful marathon, it ultimately made me so much better in my career.

I spent over 20 hours a week on my divorce

While doing above-average overtime at the office (an advertising industry norm), I spent over 20 hours a week on divorce-related matters: finding and hiring lawyers, filing divorce documents, going through arbitration, making court appearances, and submitting never-ending paperwork.

Like many divorcees, I was self-medicating for my anxiety, suffering from insomnia, battling the worst depression of my life, and still running a multimillion-dollar piece of global business. Meanwhile, my family life, friendships, finances, housing situation, work attendance, and income were all set ablaze.

Divorce can be bad for business

Until I got divorced, I had no idea there were zero resources and support available in corporate America.

Here's the kicker: According to a recent report commissioned by Hearst Publications, up to 70% of a company's workforce can be either going through a divorce or impacted by a close colleague experiencing one. This means a divorce (yours or a colleague's) will probably happen to you if it hasn't already.

That's not even counting separations and the end of long-term relationships.

Due to my seniority, I couldn't take time off to cope. So, instead, I'm sad to say that I turned my workroom into a toxic environment with daily tirades about my divorce. I was often scattered, unreliable, and absent. I sometimes burst into tears with no warning. When the client left the agency over many factors, I wondered how much my poor performance had played a part.

I was fired soon after and couldn't bring myself to seek out work for 18 months. I almost didn't return to my industry. Neglecting divorce is bad for people and company morale — and potentially disastrous for business.

I added my divorce to my LinkedIn 2 weeks ago

Divorce hits different people differently. It took until last year before I could say I'd finally processed it — in its entirety. And I added it to my LinkedIn résumé two weeks ago.

That said, divorce doesn't kill you; it can make you stronger. When I had the idea to put my divorce on my LinkedIn, I debated it for weeks. I hadn't discussed it with anyone and was worried about what people would think, but it felt important to point out the enormously valuable skills I developed.

You can't outsource your divorce, you can't delegate it, you have to drive that bus. Here are some of the skills from my "Divorce University" areas of study that I've included on my LinkedIn:

• California divorce law primer: In a matter of months I was fluent in all the basics and some more advanced legal aspects of divorce law. Applying the strategy skills I learned as an advertising creative, I helped my first lawyers craft legal arguments for my defense.
• Anger management: I lost count of the number of desks I didn't throw through windows. After some rocky first months, I could conduct a successful pitch and sell campaigns while keeping my internal rage outside the boardroom.
• Endurance training: Like new parents, I learned how to work a 12-hour day on an average of three hours of sleep.
• Financial planning: When you're handing over half your take-home pay in alimony, paying for your lawyers, your ex's lawyers, and all the community costs, and realizing you're almost in the red halfway through the first week of the month, you get incredibly creative to pay bills and buy groceries.
• Time management: There's no downtime when working full-time and spending 20-plus hours on your divorce. Divorcing people, especially divorcing parents, become masters at getting it done and getting it out.

Divorcees can make great employees

Any angst I'd had about doing something so personal in a professional realm like LinkedIn evaporated the moment other divorcees started DM'ing me to thank me. Some even asked me for help and advice. This just tells me that the corporate world needs to give divorces a lot more attention, and people should normalize talking about this very normal event.

The learning curve you embark on during a divorce is steep. Anyone in your organization who's divorced is probably now carved out of steel and more skilled and empathetic than you ever imagined.

So while divorce was the worst job I ever had, it was also one of my greatest teachers, which is why I put it on my CV. All things being equal, if I were hiring, I'd pick the divorced person every time.

Karl Dunn is a keynote speaker who champions the power of diversity of thinking in organizations. He wrote the first book about same-sex divorce called "How To Burn A Rainbow" and lives between Berlin and Los Angeles.