Lets change fire to lay off. There is a subtle but important difference. If you fire someone it is generally for cause - that is they did something bad. You still want someone doing their job, but because of their bad behavior it can't be them. That is if someone gets a MBA, moves to a management position and starts demanding sex of their underlings, you fire them and demand they pay for the education you got.

By contrast when you lay someone off, you are saying "you were good at your job, but we don't need someone doing your job anymore" (or maybe we can't afford to pay someone to do the job). You lost your job, but there wasn't anything you could have done different if you wanted to stay.