Imagine you’ve been fired from your job. Now imagine you have to continue working that same job for the next month without letting the word out.

That was the situation with now-former Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry.

“He never missed a beat, and it’s a credit to his character that he was able to operate under that kind of awkward situation and do as well as we have done,” said team chairman Tom Ricketts in an official Cubs release.

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Hendry had been the Cubs’ general manager and vice president since 2002, but he discovered July 22 he would no longer be part of the Cubs organization by the end of August.

Both Hendry and Ricketts came to the mutual agreement that, in the interest of continuity, Hendry should stay on through the July 31 trade and Aug. 15 first-year draftee signing deadlines, according to an article on the Cubs’ website.

Ricketts said the decision to fire Hendry was based on the ball club’s performance. At the time Hendry announced the news of his termination, the team was 16 games below .500 (54-70) and in fifth place, 18 1/2 wins behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central.

“We didn’t win enough games,” Ricketts said Friday in an official Cubs release. “In a culture of accountability, we need to look at these kinds of results.”

Despite their recent struggles, the Cubs were just over .500 in Hendry’s 9-year tenure with a 749-748 record. Hendry also produced three playoff clubs. The first was in 2003, when the Cubs were 5 outs from their first National League pennant since 1945.

Then came the 2007 and 2008 seasons, the first time the club would win back-to-back division titles since the 1907-08 championship teams. In the end, having a win percentage in the bottom 5th of the league, while having one of the highest payrolls, didn’t equate.

Brian Serrano, a senior from Itasca studying computer engineering, said the decision to let Hendry go could be a positive for the club and allow them to develop some young, new talent.

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“I think it was a great decision,” Serrano said. “It’s a chance for new ball players to get a chance instead of the so-called ‘superstars’ that are getting paid millions of dollars and … not producing.”

Serrano said team performance should be evaluated on more than management and coaching — the players must also be held accountable.

“You can’t just blame the coaching staff … because they’re not playing,” Serrano said. “It’s the players who produce championships.”

Elliott Uphoff, a junior from Shelbyville studying agriculture, said the move is the first step to relieve the Cubs’ struggles.

“It’s not a stupid decision because the Cubs haven’t been doing anything right,” Uphoff said. “They just need to work on getting rid of people like (Carlos) Zambrano — people that cause problems.”

According to an article on the ESPN website, assistant general manager Randy Bush will fill the void as interim general manager of the ball club. The article also said this is a short-term solution as the search for a new GM became effective the moment the news was announced.

Ricketts said he would like to bring in someone with a strong analytical background and who has been involved in “winning culture,” according to the article.

“I just believe that by bringing in new leadership for the baseball organization, we’ll get some different perspectives and maybe some different ideas on where to go in the future,” Ricketts said in an official Cubs release.

“We didn’t win enough games,” Hendry said in an official Cubs release. “You don’t win enough games, you can’t fight change.”