The series finale of The Office brought an end to the saga of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and saw Dwight Schrute finally promoted to Regional Manager. Around the same time, there were also major personnel changes at the Scranton branch, as many employees, such as Darryl, Andy, Nellie and even Jim and Pam, decided to leave their jobs.
To kick off the personnel changes, Dwight and the rest of the office convened in the conference room to bid farewell to a retiring Stanley with a cake. Dwight then brings out two extra cakes for two employees who he promptly fires: loathed HR rep Toby Flenderson and accountant Kevin Malone. Though his coworkers were initially upset that Kevin was fired, his termination was more than deserved.
As soon as Dwight fires Kevin, there is an uproar from the rest of the employees in the conference room. However, after Dwight asks for reasons "based on his merit" as to why he should keep Kevin on, they go quiet. This silence is quite damning, as unfortunately during Kevin's tenure at Dunder Mifflin, he had been shown at almost every opportunity possible to be a sub-par employee. In fact, in "Scott's Tots," it was revealed that Kevin was not even a trained accountant, and was only hired as one by Michael Scott after he had inquired about a job in the warehouse.
In addition to his inferior intellect and lack of training, Kevin was fired for a very specific reason. Later in the finale, Kevin's replacement, Dakota (played by a then-unknown Dakota Johnson), asks Oscar about a strange symbol in the accounts. Oscar explains that the symbol is a "keleven," Kevin's "magic number" that he used to balance the accounts. Kevin's irresponsible use of a fictional number shows that Dwight's firing was not malicious or mean-spirited, but rather what any good Regional Manager would do when an employee was acting as incompetently as Kevin was. After all, for a branch that was constantly struggling financially, using a fake number is disastrous when trying to conduct business.
Kevin's firing left him heartbroken and estranged him from Dwight, though it did allow him to open a bar. Luckily, the former coworkers were able to hash things out when Jim forces Dwight to visits Kevin's bar during his bachelor party. Sure, both men were hostile at first, but Kevin was elated when Dwight explains that he fired him for his job performance, not because he didn't like him.
Kevin later attends Dwight's wedding and hangs out in the Dunder Mifflin office one last time. Although his firing was well-deserved, Kevin's reunion with Dwight was one of the most heartwarming moments in a finale full of them. Let's just hope he doesn't get into the habit of using "keleven" to balance his bar's accounts.