I'm sorry to have to tell you this ...
I recently had the displeasure of having to make someone redundant for the first time in my not-so-long career of oficially "managing" colleagues.

Working for a very small company made it much more difficult, as we all work with each other in close proximity every day. And it's not like we have a crew of HR harpies to call on when we need to let go of a few faceless monkeys in sales.

The worst part was having to pretend for a short while that it was just a review of his position, and until the end of the consultation period there would be no final decision. But the decision had been made, and the poor guy just wanted a clean break.
So we kept it as short as possible and bunged up the severance payment as much as we could.

He took it fairly well though (probably better than I would have done). And we're helping him with his CV, contacts etc.

Business is picking up a bit now, but it couldn't get much worse than the last 3 months of 2008. Hopefully we won't need to let anyone else go.

Sorry for lack of funnies. To make up for it, here's a semi-topical joke from Sickipedia:

I got sacked from my job at the beauty salon yesterday.

I don't understand: all I did was give her a 'facial'...
(cheez is feeling ergophobic, Wed 28 Jan 2009, 16:19, 2 replies)

You know
if a company went through all that effort to make sure that I had a decent shot at landing on my feet, being laid off really wouldn't feel that bad. You're showing decency and compassion, which is very rare these days in the corporate world.

Can I come work for you?
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 28 Jan 2009, 16:43, closed)

Seconded
Just by caring at all, you've elevated yourself above the morass of cuntitude that plagues this dismal planet.

What's worse is that to many people your post displays unprofessional and commercially unsound tendencies.

*weeps for humanity*
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Wed 28 Jan 2009, 17:07, closed)