In a large company, (1)……… people is about as common as using a gun or a switch blade to (2)………an argument. As a result, most managers have little or no experience of firing people, and they find it emotionally traumatic; as result, they often delay the act interminably, much as an unhappy spouse will prolong a bad marriage. And when they firing is done, it’s often done clumsily, with far worse side effects than are necessary.
Do the world class software organization have a different way of firing people? No but they do the deed swiftly, humanely, and professionally. The key point here is to view the fired employee as a “failed product” and to ask how the process (3)…… such a phenomenon in the first place.