Comment by louischatriot

It doesn't have to be the case, at least not from my experience managing startup teams. The most usual case I've seen is that you have to let the employee go for performance reasons but you still have a good relationship with him and it's pretty natural to help by a) telling what was wrong and what he could improve in his new job and b) offering help to find a new job/talk to his prospective employers about what he did do right. I would even argue that even the most selfish managers should still proceed that way, since ending a relationship on a (as much as possible) positive note decreases the risk of a lawsuit afterwards.