A sign of the economic hard times? Let's hope not. If nothing else, it seems to me that if you have to make someone redundant, you should at least have the courage to do so in person.

Merchant bankers though they are, at least the staff at Lehman Brothers (pictured) got a proper chance to clear their desks.

Clearly the unfortunate victim of this particular cutback was not the first to check his mobile phone and regret it.

Back in January 2006, the GMB union was up in arms after AA patrol crews were texted the offer of a £12,000 pay-off if they were prepared to go quietly.

Three years earlier, in 2003 personal injury claims firm The Accident Group sacked 2,400 people by text message when its parent company went into administration.

For good measure, employees who phoned administrators PriceWaterhouse Coopers got a recorded message which told them:

"All staff who are being retained will be contacted today. If you have not been spoken to you are therefore being made redundant with immediate effect."

But at least they all got some sort of personal message - even if it arrived by text. Top prize for insensitive handling of a redundancy situation goes to Hexham-based department store Robbs, which last year managed an announcement worthy of David Brent.

Rather than call in its 140 staff one by one to tell them of their troubles, the firm's bosses set off the fire alarm, assembled everyone in the car park and read out a short statement to the effect that all their jobs were to go.

Then, before being ordered back to work, they were somewhat counter-productively told not to talk to the media about the situation.

These are, of course, difficult times, and redundancies are increasingly becoming a fact of life for employers and employees alike. But at least as an employer you can handle the situation with a bit of professionalism and humanity.

XpertHR has a "How to..." guide dealing with redundancy (subscription required) as well as a series of model policies and documents and line manager briefings on collective and individual redundancies.

There is also a mass of frequently asked questions - and answers - on redundancy for which you don't even have to be an XpertHR subscriber.

So, if things are really looking bad, at least read up on how to do it properly and go out with a bit of dignity.

Picture: Sipa Press/Rex Features