What does it really matter? and whoever said the joke had to be at the end? It's just as funny in the second to the last panel as it would be if it were in the last.. Just because there is one more panel afterwards doesn't take anything away from it.
I should think if an employee isn't somehow "key," he or she is superfluous to the organisation. The bad part is this determination can be very arbitrary. Jobs are created and eliminated pretty constantly in companies, right? No one can quite decide who should do what..