Sacking acquires a human touch - Editorial

Is it possible to fire people politely? Conventional wisdom, both boardroom and beyond, would say that’s a contradiction in terms. After all, the 

very origin of the phrase ‘getting the sack’, harks back to a ruthless industrial revolution legacy. Back then, factory workers would literally carry their tools in a sack with them as they went out in search of work. Work meant daily wages and when a factory owner no longer had use for a workman, he would be returned his sack of tools. Cynics will say that’s pretty much what the corporate world does today except that the sack of tools has been replaced with the ubiquitous pink slip. 

But now, in the turmoil-ridden financial world, companies are learning how to mix goodbye with a heartfelt sorry. Reports say the pink slip epidemic in the City of London, Europe’s financial heart, has prompted some top names to learn a few right-sizing manners. So, city bosses are now being coached not to fire people on their birthday, to talk straight and tell people early, to give the bad news with positive body language.in short to give the sack in a more civilised way. That’s crucial when you have to lay off 40,000 people in a year. At least it makes for less bad PR. Does that make the affected employee feel any better? Probably not. But it certainly does make the big redundancy drives sound a little less clinical. Which is good for morale, if not anything else. 

The corporate world has traditionally been Hollywood’s favourite punching bag for its heartless balance-sheet focus. Remember Jerry McGuire, whose impassioned mission statement did him out of a job? Those were the rocking 90s and yet the movie had a desperate Tom Cruise shouting himself hoarse, saying ‘Show me the money.’ More than a decade on, he’d probably have his HR manager shake his hand, pat him on the back and tell him he’s a decent bloke. Go figure if that’s any different in intent and impact from the first recorded version of the sack phrase in Charles Westmacott’s The English Spy, circa 1825: ‘You munna split on me, or I shall get the zack for telling on ye.’