Trump makes it look easy.

I imagine that no matter how many times I do it, firing people will never get easier. This is the second time that I've been instructed to do it at the end of the shift. In the future, I'll do it when the employee gets to work, even if it leaves me short-handed. It's SO HARD to work with the person all day, knowing what I have to do later.

Another time I had to fire someone but without knowing ahead of time. He used profanity with a customer so I didn't have a choice. A quick phone consultation with the then store manager and he was gone. I've also acted as a witness several times (so if the person being fired tried to say anything against the manager then I could dispute it).

The first time that I was solo (with a manager from another store as my witness) I had seen lots of progress from the employee and didn't agree with the firing decision, but had to do it anyway. The high-school student let a few tears fall and as she left the store turned around to tell me, "I used to like you, but this is not right" What's that supposed to mean? The BOSS made the decision, not me. I was the bearer of the bad news because the (then) boss was too chicken to do it herself.

This time I TOTALLY agreed with the decision and wondered what took Boss so long to make it. She even offered to do it herself, but it would have been inconvenient for her to come in and I didn't mind doing it. Despite my agreeing with the decision, I got more and more nervous as the evening went by, and when it came time to fire the girl, my hands were actually shaking and I felt light-headed. I did what I had to do, she left, and I could relax. She had no idea it was coming, despite frequent informal disciplining and warnings. She didn't say much, only to ask what "not working up to our standards" meant.