Also do the opposite of the opposite. If you need to fire someone, it's appropriate to use a somber tone to prepare the other party. I was recently let go as

Also do the opposite of the opposite. If you need to fire someone, it's appropriate to use a somber tone to prepare the other party. I was recently let go as basically agenda point 3 out of 4 during my normal weekly one-on-one with my manager and was completely blindsided (the position was made redundant entirely, so there was no preceding performance review or the like).