Firing employees- My experience

I have worked in companies during hard times. Especially dot com companies which were badly affected by recession.

In my dot com company the going wasn't good for many months. The board had warned CEO. of course the strategy was decided by the CEO and two other directors. They were founders of the company. But then we decided to lay off 25%  of the staff.

So while he was laying off, he was giving wrong message.He had increased his own salary- Got it approved by Board. How can you increase your own salary when you want to reduce expense? I do not know why the board accepted the salary hike.

Fortunately he himself gave the parting news to employees.Normally HR person is asked to give bad news. But
I was present when he gave the news. He gave a speech after the laid off employees left.  He gave reasons and then future plans. He promised there won't be any future layoffs.But it did not matter. The scene was repeated after 2 months. Then 25% more people were laid off.

Was it done professionaly?  I dont think so. Clearly the company was going through bad phase.But his actions gave contrasting message.I was also a person with atleast 5% blame.