In Yahoo's case, it seems like the die was already ̶s̶t̶r̶u̶c̶k̶ cast. Employees had strong signals that it was time to start looking.

Firing people isn't fun, but it seemed clear that was coming.

The die was cast. You can't strike a die unless you are a jeweler. You can also strike a coin if you are a mint (using a die) but that would be an unlikely idiom.

Thanks. Not sure where/how that phrase stuck in my brain, but it's still there. Fixed.

For 186 million, I think I could manage a sneer or two, even.

close an already dead for years crap company and make 93M$? come on man. these people will find new jobs, new employers understand they weren't individually fired for sucking if the whole company shut down

do you really think she even cares for those 'thousands' of poor souls?

i think i can do it

Ever fired a person? Single breadwinner for a family of four with a mortgage and a dog? Slept well that night? Now multiply by a few thousand.

The thing is that when it's that many, the CEO isn't the one doing it.

Also, when you fire someone I hope it's not to be cruel but for the greater good of the company that pays the other breadwinners.

I'm not saying it's easy and I get your point -- it is a really good point. Sometimes, though, to be a leader of many you have to adopt a utilitarian approach and aim for the greater good (yes there are a lot of slippery slopes).

A girl who I once dated taught me a very good lesson: when you break up with someone, it frees them to find the right person for themselves. Sometimes that same approach can work when letting someone go from his/her job. I've seen too many people who aren't good at their job being kept around because the manager couldn't bear to not be "nice". It was bad for everyone, including the person who tries so hard. One of the best essays I've read on a related subject is this:

https://qz.com/88168/how-to-hire-good-people-instead-of-nice...

A CEO or manager needs to aim to be good, not nice.

"A million is a statistic."

People have literally murdered for less, or risk their lives for less. US military enlisted gets around 30k per year +30k to 100k sign on bonus. Officer level around 60k/yr. mercenaries around 30k/month. Firefighters and police officers 50-100k year in most places in US. And many of them probably don't sleep well at night. Firing a person from a job is relative, the ones above would probably prefer it over the extremes of what their jobs asks of them.

Everyone has a price. For that many millions, lots of people would do it, especially if the alternative was someone else getting the millions and everyone getting fired anyway.

> especially if the alternative was someone else getting the millions and everyone getting fired anyway.

That's such a lame excuse.

I don't really think so. Different moral frameworks maybe? Or maybe different moral values assigned to the act of laying someone off?

Well context matters. It is much harder for a boss to close down the local factory and fire employees whose kids grew up together than a boss to fire some folks they've known for less than five years and is an outsider too.

I mean it isn't painless, nobody likes to fail and failing in newspapers around the world sucks more, but there are degrees of suckiness in life

I imagine you are speaking from the interpersonal experience, which I know to be a terrible one. Once you're in "management" teams and entire divisions become numbers in your P&L, not humans. What's more, once you've done something enough times, you become desensitised to it anyway (in this case firing people).