Yesterday, I resigned from my job. It was voluntary as I’ve accepted a position with a rival firm in another state. I’ve seen this with other employees who left voluntarily.
I have to leave by the end of the day. I’m paid for two weeks and allowed to keep benefits.
Sit around and wait for about 3 hours. I’m allowed back to my desk to finish packing what little personal stuff was left. It didn’t access any work systems, but received occasional emails telling me my access to system xyz has been removed. I’m sure the IT guys will take a quick look at my web access, but all they’ll find is my fantasy football team and CNN.
I didn’t notice any restrictions as to who I could talk with, but I’m sure it was being watched. I"m sure it would have been noticed if I went over and engaged in lengthy conversations.
I had a bunch of papers to sign.
I handed in my badge and my manager went with me to the front and we gave my work badge to security. No one inspected anything.
So, what’s the procedure like for involuntary layoffs or terminations at other companies? I’m sure the, “You’re fired!!!” is common at fast food places and retail stores, but how is it handled in the cubicle world?
I witnessed a lay-off when I worked in a cube farm once. The Director of my unit called in the two employees into his office. I wasn’t privy to what went on in the office, I’m pretty sure they were told they were being let go, but we knew something was up because the Director’s toadie went to their desk with empty boxes, packed up all their personal belongings and stood by the Director’s office door waiting for them to come out. Once they came out he tried to escort them to the front door.
I say tried because one employee grabbed her box, did a cursory evaluation to make sure all her stuff was there and shoved the toadie out of her way. She also muttered something that sounded like asshole as she walked to the elevators. The other employee was a bit more emotional and started crying right there on the spot when presented with her box o’ stuff. Another female employee walked her towards the cafeteria in an attempt to console her. With toadie following behind with the box.
System access was almost instantaneously cut off with a phone call letting IT know the employees were let go. It would take them weeks to get you access to the system when you first started working there but only seconds to terminate. All in all not a very good experience.
Came in to work one morning, to find the planning director and one of the planning commissioners in there with some boxes.
They said “budget cuts”, handed me a blunt letter with some details; severance pay, reimbursement for unused vacation time, blah blah.
Told to pack my personal belongings and leave. The planning director watched the entire time.
Tried to back up my portfolio of completed work on my flash drive. No access to the PC. They later sent me a CD with the documents.
The month following, I got a few direct deposit pay stubs and a check with reimbursement for claimed mileage.
That was it. No guidance as to what to do next regarding COBRA (health insurance continuation), collecting unemployment benefits, counseling, or anything like that. Had to do all that for myself. It was pretty much what I’d imagine a firing to be like.
I didn’t have to sign anything or do an exit interview, and I still have my employee ID.
I’ve been laid off twice, and both times I was free to come and go for a while to remove personal stuff, inform contacts, use company resources, email, Internet, to actively look for other jobs, and to make sure I provided relevant information to remaining folks on where they could find stuff, and the status of work-in-progress, etc.
Obviously I left on good terms, accepted the situation, and didn’t burn any bridges.
I have seen others escorted to the door after being given minutes to clean out their desk though. I imagine I just described the two extreme bookends of the cubicle-dweller layoff.
We downsized hundreds if not thousands of workers, some office, some factory, some other. All on several months general notice that it was coming and about 30 days notice to each person as to their individual last day.
Everybody was expected, and largely did, come to work their last day, put in a full day’s work & go home at the end of the day after turning in badges, keys, etc. If your work ended at odd hours you were expected to come back another day to drop that stuff off. Most did.
Big difference in this case is/was that everybody has a right of rehire if/when things turn around. So most were real unhappy, but willing to jump through the admin hoops to keep their recall rights alive.
But those whose job tasks could tolerate shirking didn’t see a lot of quality work done those last few days.
I’ve seen a few people fired. A manager stays with the employee as he or she cleans out their desk, turns in credit cards, ID badges, etc. and a security guard walks them to the door. No severance, and benefits ended on the last day of the month. Final paychecks and unused vacation pay was mailed. I think that’s pretty standard.
Sometimes people who were leaving voluntarily went through the same procedure. They might be walked out as soon as they gave their notice, two weeks notice be damned. One guy whose last day of work was on the first day of the month was walked out the day before, so the company wouldn’t have to pay his benefits through the following month. I thought that sucked, but nobody asked me.
How unusual is it for me to paid not to work for the last two weeks?
I guess they had two options.
Pay me to show up to work and read the Dope.
Pay me not to show up to work and read the Dope.
I assume we pay people their last two weeks, but don’t want them on the premises because they can try to influence other people to leave. My friend who recruited me to my new job got paid a $1500 bonus as long as I stick around 6 months. I figure they don’t want me trying to influence current employees into leaving and me collecting bonuses to do just that.
I don’t think that’s it. If they were worried about influence, it would be just as likely that current employees could convince you to stay. Their problem is that in those last two weeks you can cause enormous amounts of damage if you want to. Throwing things out, misfiling. If you’re in IT you probably can wreak all kinds of havoc. You can destroy the company property you use. You can walk to other people’s areas and mess their stuff up. If you’re creative you can come up with all kinds of things? Why would the company take the risk? Even if you are departing on pretty good terms, in a big company HR has already decided it’s not worth the risk in any situation and made it a policy.
In most cases, for me, whether I resigned or was laid off there was a period of several weeks’ “warning” for which I was paid and during which I was expected to work; usually I’d be expected to prepare my replacement or to leave enough notes for him to be able to take over without too much pain. Paperwork (compensation for undue layoff, for example; signing the equivalent of your pink slip) gets handled some time during that period.
There was only two instances where the firing was “don’t come tomorrow” and both were for temp jobs with extremely bad companies.
The few times I’ve seen or heard of someone who wasn’t expected to at least work (and work for real) until the end of the day outside of references in this board, the cops were involved.
Asking you to leave immediately is determined mostly by the nature of your job and to a lesser extent by the reason you are leaving. The more sensitive, the more likely you are to be asked to leave on the same day. A file clerk leaving because she’s decided to stay home with the kids is probably going to be expected to work through her notice. A business development guy neck-deep in strategy going to work for a competitor will be out of there ASAP.
Getting paid for the two weeks has to do with how much your employer cares about getting notice of terminations. If they don’t pay the two weeks, word gets around they start getting people just not showing up one day.
Your situation of getting paid but not required to work the last 2 weeks is pretty common.
It’s not that unusual. The two weeks is more of a courtesy on your part so that the company has time to transition anything you are working on to someone else. If you have nothing to do, they aren’t going to give you more work to do since you’re leaving in two weeks. Better to just give you the two weeks pay then have you sit around board distracting everyone.
Companies always act like assholes when you quit though. It’s like they treat you like shit but then take it as a personal affront when you go to work somewhere else.
One of my first jobs the conversation went something like this:
Me “blah blah blah…quitting.”
Partner “Fine! Go back to the office, turn in your equipment and get out of here! We aren’t going to give you two weeks of additional experience to take somewhere else!”
Me “But…I’m going to get paid for those two weeks…right?”
Partner “YES!!”
Me “Then what do I care?”
As for involuntary termination, what what I’ve…er…seen, usually your manager and someone from HR calls you into an office and they tell you they are terminating your employment. They usually give you some forms to sign - usually an agreement not to sue in exchange for your severance pay. You leave your equipment with IT or reception or whoever, gather your things and go. I’ve never really seen anyone escorted out by security. Maybe in an investment bank or something.
On the other hand, I’ve never seen anyone really “fired” as in for cause (stealing, drugs, etc). Usually they are laid off or “counselled out” when the firm is having economic trouble or they decide to remove their position.
One temp job, they simply told the temp agency not to ask me back. I was a little surprised at first but then I realized earlier in the day I accidently opened the die of an injection molding machine while the plastic was still pouring. Oops.
It’s happened to me three times. One time was very informal. My boss told me “the grant that paid your salary isn’t being renewed. We won’t be able to pay you past (the end of the fiscal year.) I hope you’ll stay until then, and you can take whatever time off you need to look for another job.”
The other two times it was much more cut and dried. They called me into an office, told me my job was being eliminated, gave me a letter that explained they’d give me severance if I didn’t sue them, another letter that told me I’d be getting outplacement service, and another letter that told me how to find out about COBRA and my 401K benefits. Then they gave me a box for my personal stuff, someone escorted me to clean out my desk and show me out the door.
One time (during a mass layoff) it happened at 10 a.m. The other time they waited until the end of the day.
I’ve only left two jobs, both voluntarily. I left AT&T during the trivestiture. We had to decide by the end December, and leave by Jan. 15. This experience was somewhat odd in that about a quarter of our center was leaving, (including my entire management chain and a good chunk of my group) so we spent most of the time getting things ready for the suckers who stayed. And had a mass going away party.
I gave two weeks notice at the other place I left, which I spent documenting things and trying to get some stuff finished. They did escort people out the door who were going to work for a competitors, which is why no one seems to say who they’re going to work for any more.
Two years ago we had a massive layoff when a big project got canceled. We had a big job fair to try to place the people, most of whom found better jobs anyway. I did manage to get someone. Lots of companies say that the job is being done away with, not the person but in this case they really lived up to that. The recent layoff was about people, so we’re not angels. It was all done in a day.
I’ve witnessed a couple of terminations for cause. The first was a violent nutcase. I supervised her and made the decision to fire her, but although I was willing to, I did not have to do the dirty work myself.
The president of the organization ushered nutcase into her office and the two spoke briefly. Then nutcase emerged, walked over to her cubicle, grabbed her stuff while seething silently, and left - watched and escorted by two security officers. You could tell she was really angry because she broke out in scarlet blotches around her neck, which happened whenever she became particularly enraged.
Out of pity, I had earlier had this same employee over to my house for dinner, so she knew where I lived. As it happened, I moved at exactly the time she was fired. I was genuinely relieved by this, as that woman was so crazy that I would not put it past her to throw rocks at my son or run my husband down with an automobile. I’m not kidding.
The second termination just happened and was very different. A few days ago the head of our office told my co-worker that it just wasn’t working out, and gave her a month’s notice. Everyone is behaving graciously. Of course, the reason she got a month’s notice is because it was impossible to hunt for a replacement behind her back, and the position simply can’t be left empty. So it is a bit awkward, but everyone is trying hard to make the best of it.
It’s happened to me twice-- once I got fired by a genuinely crazy boss*. I’d been out for a few days with very bad food poisoning-- after being yelled at when I called from the ER with an IV in my arm. In the middle of a meeting she suddenly burst out, “This just isn’t working out! You’re fired! Get out of my office.”
The second time was a layoff. The company, a tiny start-up, was going under, and my boss sat us all down one at a time in mid-december and said they wouldn’t be able to pay us after the first of the year-- stay for a week to help tie up loose ends and we’ll pay you severance to Jan 1, feel free to look for jobs at your desk, if anyone want’s resume help/written references/etc just ask. Our last day was Dec 23, we all went out to lunch, there was hugging and crying. It was actually quite sad, but the most positive “job end” I’ve ever had, in a way. (At 3:30 PM that day I went for my first interview for my current job–boss was going out out of town for the holidays and wanted to meet me first)
Someone in my office recently got fired for sexual harassment (more specifically, unwanted and aggressive advances on a very young woman who reported to him). He was fired via phone and told his stuff would be sent to him. They changed every password in the office (he was in IT-- they made us all change ours, too), and changed the locks.
People who quit and then loiter around for two weeks can be a morale problem, too-- they may bitch loudly about all the problems they had and respond to everything with “What are you going to do? Fire me?”
*Years later, I stumbled across the resume of the woman who’d replaced me under said crazy boss. She’s lasted a year, and I interviewed her because I decided to last a year she was either also crazy or a friggin’ saint. Option B, so I hired her, and she’s be great. We still joke about the Nut Job and wonder what she’s up to.
Been laid off once. Didn’t even get a phone call. Just came into work and “the company” was being packed into boxes and stacked in the corner. A coworker said the owner called and told them they were closing. So I turned around and drove home.
Terminated with cause - probably very soon after the decision is made (as soon as your boss can work himself up - its hard to do) you are called into his office and told “we are terminating your employment effective immediately.” Reasons (since its cause) are laid out. You are escorted to your desk, you clean it out, you walk out the door. While you’ve been in with your boss, all access to systems has been removed and your access card disabled. Word has spread unofficially pretty quickly while you were in the office, usually you discover your cube neighbors have all decided to “go for a walk” or “have a smoke.”
Laid Off - last time I went through one of these - its a much more painful process. Its a full day of people being called in to speak to their boss - being handed packages. The last one, we gave 30 days notice on your termination plus severance. You could come into the office during that time or not. You could use it to find another job using the firms resources. Your computer access to all but the most sensitive information remained in place for 30 days.
My old job’s usual way was to let people go after lunch, so they bastards could just cut off access while people were on their lunch break. For the poor saps that came in at 4, they found their key card didn’t work. 20 year employee? Came up with the name of the company? You get TWO boxes and an armed escort out.
I knew mine was coming, which is why I started laying the groundwork with IT. When they finally told me it was my final day and not to bother coming in, I called the IT guy I knew and asked him to just take one simple folder I had on the hard drive, which contained all my resumes, projects and annual reviews. All it cost me was a thank you, and I was even able to get his daughter a job about 4 years later.