Being sacked from a job for any reason is to your psyche what a car accident is to your body. It's sudden, it's violent and the effects tend to linger longer than we'd like. The first few seconds of finding out your services are no longer needed is figuratively one giant stomach punch. As a matter of fact I would prefer an actual punch the stomach than to have to hear a member of HR (one department of the trinity of evil) try to tell me as nicely as they can that they think I suck. One punch, they walk away, I pack a box, and no words or embarrassing attempts at civility have to be made. This way HR gets an outlet for the stress they've been holding in leading up to the fateful action and I get to move from the disbelief stage to anger stage in a couple seconds rather than several hours. Maybe I'll make this suggestion at the next staff meeting...