IRL, I help companies that are on the financial brink restore enough order to either sell or establish new processes and become viable.
The first order of business is usually a mess because you have to get the lay of the land, figure out what's going on and how payables and receivables are being handled, if at all.
Early on, everybody is your friend and everybody wants to tattle on everyone else and shine their own image. Unless absolutely necessary, it's not wise to fire anyone for the first couple months because you need to figure out who's honest, who's iffy, who's the King/Queen of BS and who can provide factual information you need.
If things were truly a mess, Ben would have done much the same. He would have spent time on a horse, with the cowboys, assessed land & cattle, assessed who was honest, who was iffy, who were quality hands that got the job done and would likely been at the point where he was starting to cut costs. Some would have come by way employees, he would have looked at feed and pasture costs, he may have been looking to bring in outside cattle by way of calf shares or subleases to maintain grazing leases, etc, look at brokers to sell ranch calves rather than sell at auction, ect.
Our labor laws are such that one can fire long time employees for very specific reasons, without a severance package. Some managers keep cutting hours, with the hope an employee will simply find another job but if there is a legal reason to let them go quickly, it often involves dishonestly/theft and most will give them the option of leaving and not press charges if they leave immediately.
If Ben was firing/laying off employees, he had to be working with someone because labour laws can be tricky. I would suspect his direct contact would have been the owner but the office manager may have handled certain details and I would hope she maintained confidentiality. I've found over the years that most are a huge asset and there are a few that live for spreading gossip and misinformation.
