There’s no version of this conversation that feels easy. But there’s a real difference between a redundancy conversation that’s handled with clarity and respect, and one that leaves lasting damage, to the person in front of you, to your own reputation as a manager, and to how the rest of your team sees the organisation afterwards.

Most managers don’t avoid difficult conversations because they don’t care. They avoid them because nobody ever showed them how to have them properly. Here are five of the most common ones,