[sterlingice]

I think firings and layoffs are two different things, too. I've never been a manager but I've been a supervisor and we had 6 contractors that eventually we had to cut and it was my job to tell them.

The first two, I barely felt it because they were not very good employees, but still felt bad for them as people - it was going to make the team function better and I could justify it in my mind as everyone else benefiting from the detriment of those two. Plus, in a lot of cases, people just fall into jobs that aren't good fits but don't leave because of inertia and likely they will find a better fit anyway (or at least, that's what you tell yourself).

The middle two were kindof hard - they were pretty good employees. At one point, one of them asked me something about one of the other contractors, one of the ones we were still keeping. I'm a pretty straight shooter but had to pull out the stupid company line I was coached, something to the effect of "let's just talk about you today" and I felt dirty saying it.

The last two were really rough because they were better than a number of my full-time people and really busted their rear ends to do a good job and there was nothing I could do to save their position. I remember feeling ill to my stomach for a couple of days after that.

I suspect something like this feels the first set

SI