How to tell an employee their position is being eliminated without hiding behind the company
Updated 24 September 2026
You found out on Tuesday. You argued against it, and you lost, and now the
meeting is yours to hold. Mira has done nothing wrong. Her last review was
strong and you wrote every line of it. Her work is being merged into another
team, and her role goes with it, and the people who decided that are two
levels above you and will never sit across from her.
This page is about that conversation: the fifteen minutes in which you tell
someone whose work you rate that her position is being eliminated. It will not
tell you what the letter says or what she is owed. It will tell you what tends
to happen after you say it, and what to hold onto when it does.
What makes this one hard
Firing someone at least comes with a reason you can give. There was a plan,
there were objectives, there is a record. This has none of that. There is no
performance problem to name, no restructuring she asked for, and no version of
the reason that makes it her fault, because it is not.
That is where the trap sits. With nothing to point at, you retreat into the
passive voice. "A decision has been made." "The business is consolidating."
"Roles have been reviewed." Every one of those sentences is true, and every
one is unbearable to hear from someone she trusted, because it tells her the
person in front of her is not there. She came to talk to you. The company is
not in the room.
The harder discipline is to be the person who says it, in the first person,
while being honest that you did not choose it. Both halves at once. Most people
manage one.
Before you walk in
Is this a layoff or a firing?
Settle it in your own head first, because she will hear the difference in your
first sentence. This is a redundancy. It is about the role and not about her,
and if you are not certain of that, you are not ready. Reread the review you
wrote. That is the truth you are carrying in, and it is the one you will need
to say out loud.
How much of the reason can you give?
Know exactly where the line is. You can say the work is moving to another
team. You can say when. You cannot say who else is affected, and you cannot
tell her it was your call, because it was not. Decide before you sit down what
you will say when she asks the things you cannot answer, so that "I can't tell
you that" arrives as a boundary and not as a flinch.
What you need to leave with. She knows her role is ending, she knows it
is not about her work, and she knows what happens next: her last day, and who
she talks to about the rest.
The part that belongs to HR
This page is about the conversation, not the paperwork. Consultation
requirements, notice periods and redundancy rules differ by country, and
severance, benefits and who else is affected are HR's to settle and to state.
Have those answers, and know who is delivering them, before the meeting rather
than during it. FirstSpar is not legal advice, and a job elimination is the
conversation where that matters most.
How to open it
Say it inside the first two sentences, and say it in your own voice.
Mira, I have some hard news. Your role is being cut. The work is moving to
another team, and your job ends with it. This is not about how you have done
it.
That is one version. Yours will differ, but it should carry the same three
things before anything else: what is happening, that it is the role, and that
it is you telling her. The silence afterwards will feel long. Let it be long.
Knowing the opening line is the easy part. You can write it on a card. What you
cannot write on a card is what you say in the minute after she answers, and
that is the minute worth rehearsing out loud.
What happens after they answer
She asks what she did wrong
She will ask, because there is no other frame that makes sense from where she
sits. This is where the review earns its keep. Say that her work was strong,
that you wrote that down, and that you meant it. Say it once, plainly, and do
not decorate it. If you keep reassuring her, it starts to sound like the thing
people say before they change the subject.
She asks whether you fought for her
You did, and you lost, and both of those are true. The temptation is to tell
her the whole story, because it makes you feel less like the person doing this
to her. Resist it. Tell her you disagreed and that the decision stands. If you
turn the meeting into an account of your own disappointment, she ends up
comforting you, and she is the one losing her job.
She asks who else is going
You are not allowed to say, and she will ask more than once, in different
forms. Is it the whole team? The answer does not change: you
cannot tell her that today. Do not soften it with a hint, and do not apologise
for the rule as if it were yours. A boundary stated calmly is easier to hear
than one you are visibly uncomfortable holding.
She asks what happens now
This is the sign the conversation has turned, and it is where the facts you
brought matter. Her last day. Whether she is expected to hand her work over,
and to whom. Who she speaks to about pay, notice and support in finding what
comes next. Answer what you know, name who owns what you do not, and never
promise a transfer or a new position you cannot deliver.
The one thing to hold
Acknowledge before you push. Every hard question she asks is a reasonable
person trying to make sense of something that does not, and the instinct is to
answer fast so the moment ends. Slow down. Say what you heard
her ask, and then answer it, even when the answer is that you cannot say. The
debrief in FirstSpar calls this acknowledging before you push, and in a
redundancy conversation it is the difference between news delivered and news
dropped.
What good looks like
Clarity. She knew inside the first two sentences that her role was ending,
that it was the role and not her, and that it was final. Nothing you said in
the next ten minutes blurred any of the three.
Empathy. You did not hide behind the company. You spoke in the first
person, you acknowledged what she asked before you answered, and you let the
silences run without filling them with reasons she had not asked for.
Holding the line. When she asked who else was affected, and again in
different words, you held the boundary without a hint and without an apology
that made it sound like yours. When she asked whether you fought for her, you
told her the truth and then stopped.
Afterwards
People who have delivered this news talk about it staying with them for weeks:
replaying the sentence, wondering whether she believed it was not about her.
That is normal, and it is not a sign you got it wrong. Write down, the same
day, what you said and what she asked while it is still accurate, and keep the
promises you made about what happens next.
If it does not settle, talk to someone. FirstSpar is practice, not support, and
a conversation like this one can deserve both.
Rehearse it before the real one
Tell them the role is being cut
You face Mira, someone who reports to you.
Mira's role is being cut. Her work is being merged into another team and the decision was taken two levels above you — you were told on Tuesday and you argued against it and lost. Her last review was strong and you wrote it yourself. You are not allowed to tell her who else is affected, and you cannot tell her the decision was yours, because it was not.
Objective: Be clear that it is the role and not her, without hiding behind the company.
Written at Realistic · Delivering hard news · Listening first
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