Bosses Seek Advice For Friendly Firing Tips

In Up In the Air, the movie where George Clooney fires people for a living, all of the audience's sympathy lies with the poor, unsuspecting employees who get the ax. But stop to think for a minute about what it's like to be the boss who actually has to do the firing (who doesn't hire an outplacement firm to do it for her).

Knowing you are taking away people's paychecks and grinding their careers to a halt is no walk in the park. You're severing relationships, and that causes stress and anxiety.

According to the Forbes.comlayoff tracker, since November 2008, America's largest public companies have reported more than 690,000 layoffs. That's a lot of emotionally charged firing sessions.