> and guards waiting to escort them to their cars That's fucked up." For both the employee and employer. Yes, it is fucked up. But also required. When someone is fired, you can't tell them ahead of time. And it comes to them as a shock. People in shock react poorly and show poor judgment. Nurses and doctors have incredibly sensitive information available to them, and very personal relationships with their patients. They are also bound by HIPAA regulations about information handling and disclosure. Those regulations also bind their employer. If a nurse was notified they were fired, and allowed access to a computer (there's one EVERYWHERE in the modern medical office) or to a phone, or to ANYTHING in the office, that would be a violation of regulations, and would also allow the person - who is in shock and probably not thinking clearly because they are offended, affronted, panicking, etc. - to do immeasurable harm to the office and its patients. So. When you get fired, you get escorted out of the building by security. I've been fired twice, and both times it happened this way. In one job I was telephone customer support for a moving company. In the other I was writing website copy for a high tech company. It sucks for everyone. Imagine being someone's manager, and knowing you had to fire them, say, on Friday. For a week you need to act normally. Treat them the same as you would any other day. All the while, knowing that they are going to be traumatized by the experience, and humiliated by being escorted out of the building by security. And you want NONE of that to happen to them; the budget was cut, and you had to cut three staff, and Joe is one of them, so it's going to happen, and you know what it is going to be like for them, and you have to just suck it up and sleep at night and try to get on with your life, knowing that person is going to hate you from this day on. I've also been a manager of large teams. And had to fire people. Nobody wins. Everyone suffers. "May I say, in the least eloquent fashion possible: