The two should go together, IMHO. I would much rather be fired by the cool boss that I could relate to and shoot the shit with than a cold, by the book boss. Th

The two should go together, IMHO. I would much rather be fired by the cool boss that I could relate to and shoot the shit with than a cold, by the book boss. The problem with that is a lot of bosses find it hard to fire their "friends" and maintain their appeal. My last boss was like that, which is why he delegated the hiring and firing to a "hired gun". He was a good guy for the most part, but that was the most difficult thing to watch as I got up into management and saw what was going on. He would make the calls to have someone canned, delegate down to the "gun" and then put on a face of disbelief and contempt in front of everyone as though it wasn't his choice to fire the person. You may question, as did I, how people could buy this circus act, but it worked quite well. When anyway would question the CEO as to why he doesn't fire the "gun" if he doesn't agree with what he's doing, he would always comment that when you put someone in a position like that you can't undermine what they do. For better or for worse, you have to back them and their decisions. Which is true, but was also just a smoke screen for what was really going on to those none the wiser.