> Newcomb describes it as “one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to
  > make because it meant letting go of some people.” Stressing the firings
  > weren’t easy for him. “Before I made the decision, I drove scar from San
  > Francisco to Baltimore and back to think it through,” he explains. “I took
  > eight days.”

I have fired people. It is brutal. I have been fired. It's worse. So managers, please: Never solicit sympathy for the pain of firing people.