> But I firmly believe that giving an employee time to reflect on what went wrong & why is important. And they need distance to achieve this.
I agree with you on this but I see a distinction between being 'cold and distant' vs 'not chummy'. The latter seems appropriate but the former seems counter productive (at least it would be with me).
My impression is that you mean the latter but I can see how the original post might be read as meaning the former.