Most people reading this probably have been fired from a job at some point in their lives. No matter how it happens, getting sacked is no fun, but as the Wall Street Journal's Sarah Needleman writes, "when a dismissal borders on insulting, it becomes the stuff of legends."

Referencing the New York Mets' recent firing of manager Willie Randolph, Needleman says:

Bad firings in corporate America might not get as much press -- or as much scrutiny -- as a baseball manager's demise might, but they can be far more damaging, and not just for the employee on the chopping block. They can tarnish a company's reputation among business partners, vendors and consumers, as well as make it difficult to recruit and retain talent, say workplace experts.

The WSJ article offers several examples of "bad firings," including:

A tech VP was fired a month after he had moved his family cross-country and started his job. Reason: Change of plans.

A sales rep who had been exceeding his targets his two months on the job is fired. The new VP who wielded the ax could offer no reason for the action.

A corporate trainer said she got an email from her employer around lunchtime "with instructions to call a 1-800 number. It led to a voice recording saying that the company, a small technology firm, was closing its doors and all employees needed to leave right away."

I know what you're thinking. If you're writing the screenplay for "Nightmare Firings In Corporate America", you might want to punch those incidents up a bit. The point of the WSJ article, though, is to offer advice on how to fire people. Specifically:

Do it in person (if possible), in private and at the end of the day.

Offer a reason.

Let them choose the size of their severance package -- the sky's the limit! (Sorry, this option only is for CEOs, and negotiated at time of hire.) 

Consider training on how to fire employees.

This last one strikes me as important.  Firing people is 1) hard and 2) no fun. I've fired people, and I've done it poorly. Everyone's nervous, whether the action is warranted and inevitable or sudden and unexpected. For the person doing the firing, you know you're about to do something that could have a disastrous effect on another person's finances. It's nothing to feel good about, even if the decision to dismiss is the right one for the organization.

Plus the person being fired can get (understandably) panicky, emotional and defensive, making it hard to avoid unpleasant scenes that could lead either to litigation or to you changing your mind. That's why a lot of organizations involve an HR person in the employment termination process. They're more likely than you or the worker being dismissed to be calmer and more in command of information helpful to the process.

A process that, still and all, sucks.