cowardly sacking over the phone

Again I point out that he was not sacked but retired, and he was given nearly three month's notice of it. And what is "cowardly" about a senior manager ringing somebody personally to give them this news? Cowardly would have been to get a minion to send a form letter, an email or text message with no notice at all. Specialist music presenters on local radio get that sort of treatment all the time, sometimes without even the chance to do a final goodbye programme.