Don’t go away mad; just go away.

“Don’t go away mad; just go away.” is a compact expression of dismissal placed in Burke Devore’s account of being laid off and guided through the company’s post-layoff process. Set against the language of counseling, résumé training, and consideration of options, its bluntness exposes the tension between a courteous corporate procedure and the fact of being pushed out.

Wording and Placement

The sentence appears on its own after Burke recalls going along with the company’s process for eleven months—or sixteen, if he counts the final five months at the mill after receiving his yellow slip. That period included counseling, résumé-writing training, and discussions of “options,” all presented as though Burke, the company, its representatives, and its specialists were working together toward his contentment and happiness. The expression’s abrupt, unsentimental dismissal punctures that account without identifying a speaker or explicitly assigning the words to the company.

Corporate Context

The surrounding passage places the expression amid the planned contraction of Halcyon Mills. Rumors of downsizing had circulated for a year or two, and two smaller rounds of staff reductions had already taken place. Burke received his yellow slip with his paycheck in October 1995; at first, the process seemed businesslike and professional enough to feel more like nurturing than weaning. The mill’s workforce fell from 2,100 to 1,575, a reduction of about one-quarter. Burke’s product line was eliminated, Machine No. 11 was sold for scrap, and the work was absorbed by the company’s Canadian affiliate. The five-month lead time kept him on salary through Christmas while ostensibly giving him time to find another job.

Narrative Function

The expression condenses the passage’s contrast between institutional reassurance and practical exclusion. The company’s language promises support and personal fulfillment, while the sentence reduces departure to a hard instruction: leave, regardless of anger. Its placement makes it resonate with Burke’s description of the process as a charade, but the text does not establish it as an official company slogan or identify who says it. Its force comes from that juxtaposition: a polished procedure accompanies an outcome that remains a removal.