Had a clash with executive over my phishing test methods

This could have Literally caused a heart attack, a panic attack, and/or aggravated Caretaker Fatigue Syndrome (this is a real thing recognizing by the American Medical Association among others https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/ama-assn.org/files/corp/media-browser/public/public-health/caregiver-burnout-guide.pdf ) Doesn't matter if it was fake, the initial reaction is all it takes to spike adrenaline into the danger zone. Evolution selected for react first verify later. Those who didn't, didn't survive. As an employee I would seriously consider quitting even a very good job if I got that email despite figuring out it was a phishing test - especially if I found out the person responsible wasn't fired for it. Let me clarify my background because it is very relevant to my answer. Why I understand how serious phishing attacks can be: I understand all too well how prevalent & dangerous phishing attacks are. I work in IT. I have spent several years screening emails reported as phishing emails as part of my job role. I worked at an org that was hit with a major cyber security attack via email before most orgs even had dedicated cybersecurity departments & no one outside IT departments had even even heard of the phrase "phishing". But that was most the beginning... we then a higher up of a department had the genius idea to blab to the press that our IT department & email protections sucked - trying to throw us under the bus (even though it was literally someone in their department that clicked the phishing email that caused it + we detected it very quickly & were able to recover within less than 1 day - ransomeware). As a result we got Slammed with phishing attacks for Years after but with a Lot of work we were able to ramp up user awareness and find some of the first AI detection tools & kept our network safe despite 3 different zero day targeted attacks in addition to the barrage of spear phishing campaigns that included a number of attackers literally calling to try to collect data to help their targeted attacks. I have also been an IT manager and I know that mistakes and lapses in judgement can happen. However you also need to weigh the impacts to other employees morale (especially as it relates to retaining good employees) into your decisions.