Be careful who and how you fire

In a Huffington Post entry about firing and being fired, once-axed LA Weekly publisher Michael Sigman shares a couple of anecdotes about the perils of being the one doing the laying off.

I was shopping for music at Virgin -- before Virgin closed and all the people who worked there were fired! -- when I ran into a woman whom I'd let go years before with little apparent acrimony. I smiled and said "Hi" and, she, eyes shooting daggers, spat, "I hope you rot in hell" and stormed away.

Another time, I fired someone we'll call Lanny -- actually I didn't fire him, but someone who worked for me did. Lanny soon took to stalking me with a video camera, vowing he'd "get" me. I wasn't sure if I was in store for a 60 Minutes-like ambush or an attempt at more physical vigilante justice, but -- not wanting to take chances with this giant-sized fellow -- I went to court to get a restraining order.