If you are laying someone off, the best time is the morning so that the employees don’t feel like they worked the whole day for nothing. This will give them time to get their belongings and say their goodbyes prior to the day being over.
While the atmosphere might not be pleasant as the workers that are still working will be upset about their colleagues, you are just delaying the inevitable. If you let go of employees at the end of the day the following day the employees that still have their jobs will notice that their former coworkers are not there and will be upset over the job losses anyway and that they could not say goodbye. Also you might have to reassure your employees that hopefully there will not be more layoffs or your best employees might seek greener pastures for more job security before waiting to be let go of.
Obviously while painful for both you and the employee,the employee might have doubts about their job performance which led to the firing. reassure them that it was due to a change in business and not their work that led to their being let go, and if possible give a severance package to all involved
Additionally, if you are laying off people I am sure you exhausted all other options and it is a very hard decision for you and your company. I want to wish you further Hatzlacha in your business so you may begin to hire again and not have any parnassa worries