"fired" is a very negative word, but the point is there needs to be a break between company and employee. As someone who was fired for cause in a situation like this, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. The ship was on fire and sinking fast, and I was totally burned out, bailing as fast as I could. Requested my vacation time once we shipped(nearly on schedule) & got fired instead. Felt awful at the time and I was totally bitter, but looking back it was a godsend. 5 weeks later I had a new job, a vacation, and a huge raise. Now I can't imagine why I spent so long there doing miserable work with old dead end tech, crazy overtime, and all for a pittance. Yea it would have been nice to leave on my terms but the important thing was leaving, regardless of fault or method

I know you did mean firing, but even that wasn't necessary. In germany we actually force companies to at least try and work things out. In order to fire someone you need 3 documented instances of misbehavior followed up improvement attampts, or an actual breach of law.

This gives everyone time to sit down, gain distance, sleep over it and calm down and try again.

Plus, if the feeling of not getting along remains after that, after some calming down it's often easier to work out a mutually acceptable separation. In a similar situation over here, Rick would've gotten a fairer treatment even on separation, other than "fuck you, bye".

I know he didn't mean killing. I elaborated in a comment above.