They fired a guy I was working with today. I never particularly liked him, he was one of the more bro-tastic loud backslapping people there, but I sympathized with him at some level – and he loved to travel and talk about places he’s been to – and who am I to judge him for how he chose to be. My manager, who had to do the firing, was pretty shaken, too. I am glad I never had to fire anyone (except one particularly bad consultant, at the Old Company), and I hope I never will.

It is strange and unsettling to see someone you see and talk to every day – more often than your parents and most of your friends – disappear from your life just like that. I could reach out and have a drink or coffee – if I wanted to – but we really have little in common, and it wouldn’t change the fact that tomorrow his things at his desk will disappear, and I will never see or hear of him again.

Maybe he will take the time to take a year off and do a gap year in his early 30s – and come back changed, and better for it.