Break the ice with a gag - a 5 minute one.

One of my colleagues left the employ of the firm yesterday.  In time-honoured style, his boss was handed the poisoned chalice, and had to make a speech to mark the occasion.  This he did with praiseworthy candour.  The chap who left, let's call him Joe, is unswervingly honest in his assessment of the short comings of the company.

They've (the bosses) only themselves to blame.  Joe was doing a job he disliked and wanted to move to a post for which he was eminently qualified.  However, his refusal to hold his tongue for the sake of social mores earned him some powerful enemies.  He gave them six and a half years, but eventually he realised he was banging his noggin against a concrete curtain.

Because he disliked his job, he alienated his colleagues in that section - hence the rhetorical cold shoulder.  His boss opened with the observation that some people are brilliant at their jobs but quickly forgotten.  Joe, on the other hand, was "a nightmare" at his job, but would linger long in the memory.

Joe sat and took the drubbing like a champ.  He waited for the bell, lifted his arms in the air and started an Ali shuffle on the spot as the judges scored the contest.  Those of us who were fortunate enough to witness this event guffawed from start to finish.  In the end, we concluded that the firm had lost on points.  When you start ridding yourself of talented, charismatic employees for being a little rough around the politesse edges, you're screwed.  The office is filling-up with dead-eyed, sharp-suited corporate robots - exactly the kind of people who know how to wield a fish knife and confine themselves to anodyne small-talk, but are ultimately fucking useless.

This kind of behaviour is what did for Thatcher.  She started to believe her own press, and remove the dogs-in-a-manger from her cabinets.  This isolated her from the "out there", and we destroyed her as a result.  She was the last person on Earth who saw it coming, which explains her tears on leaving Downing Street.  She thought we loved her.  Why wouldn't she?  That's what her advisers told her.  In fact, we hated her.