In today's day and age we have people like the hero of the movie Up In The Air-George Clooney performing such a stellar role. I too was once appointed to get rid of over 38 employees of a company which had just got taken over by another competitor. My portfolio was to find reasons to shut down the office so that the great company could chop up the assets and sell them. The brief said that the office is non performing and has never shown any potential for growth of any sort.

I was appalled at the performance but took in mind to make it worth the while and get the branch on firm footing. The employees were vary of me and looked at me with complete disdain. They knew that no one could do anything to their performance. The stores were in a decrepit place facing a crematorium. The stores keeper counted everyday how many corpses came for cremation there. The first day at office was a complete turnaround for them. I showed up in time and every other person ambled at their own pace and time. There onwards it was full control and everyone worked their ass off till late at night. We usually started at 9am and worked till 9pm. The office turned up an astounding performance crossing all previous records set and getting a 300% jump in sales. I was hauled up for non performance since my brief told me to sack all the employees and here I was putting in stunning results. The management could find no reason to sack any of them so since I was from the management, I was sacked.

The companies cite various reasons for chucking the old employees most of the time and the hatchet man has to comply. His job signifies that he better perform in his given role. He has no qualms in doing his job since its just a 'job' which someone has to do. How does it work for those who loose it? Their families suffer, the kids have to skip school sometimes, their mortgages are not paid and they loose their hard earned house. Who are the cause for their destruction? Is it the company, the hatchet man, the society, the customers, the greed of the owners or is it just destiny? There are no firm answers in the material world since each and everyone can push the blame on to another person and get away with murder.

In the spiritual world we just let it be and let destiny work itself out. We never bother the good or bad consequences of anything at all since our main part is to have equanimity of mind and just do the job which we are assigned to us. But for the material worldly it is very painful and hard on everyone associated with it. The hatchet man can never sleep peacefully neither can the one who is axed.

I was happy I got the sack since I could no longer handle the situation with ease then. I did what I could to save them but unfortunately everyone was told to go after I got the boot. The company closed down and got absorbed. There was violence in the plants and the chief was murdered by one of the employees. It was a very sad case of which I became a part of.