> My question, or topic for discussion, is this:
What do you think would be a proper or
"better" way for the company to explain things
to the rest of the employees besides telling us
that he is no longer employed here? Just
curious if anyone has any thoughts.

The situation you described sounds very
familiar. When I was laid off from my previous
job, they handled it much the same way. The
difference was that most of my department got
the axe and we all knew why we were being let
go. They called us in individually into the VP's
office, and while he and someone from HR
informed us of what we had already figured
out, another person was back in our cubicles
powering down our computers and locking us
out of them. They did let us pack up our own
belongings, though.

I really don't know that there is a "better" way
for companies to fire people. They have to do it
that way to protect themselves from acts of
vengeance by former employees. If they
allowed people to pack up their things
unsupervised, they risk defacement or
destruction of valuable company property, and
if the newly-unemployed were allowed back
onto their computers they could commit acts
of sabotage on whatever projects they had
been working on.

Most people who have just been fired from a
job probably have the strength of character not
to act on such thoughts, but it makes sense
that the company has to protect itself from the
few who would.

John Grishny