When I was at Visteon ,they laid off 30 percent of the engineering workforce. They had a security company come in and put black crepe paper on the windows of a conference room. Then they called employees names over the loud speaker one at a time. While they were in the office getting canned, a couple guards went to their cubicle and packed their stuff. When they came out of the office and went to their desk, they were met by 2 security guards who walked them to their cars with the boxes.
It was horrible to watch and it took 2 days for them to finish. Guys worked while listening to the loudspeakers and nervously waited to hear if they were next.
I heard that our company once, several years back, had to lay off a bunch of IT employees at once and were a little afraid of the damage that they might be able to do. So all of their computers were turned off at once and they were basically rounded up and cordoned off by security and informed that they were terminated while all their access was being removed. They were then brought back to their desks and allowed to gather their things before being escorted off the property by security. It was basically a sting (I think it was like 50 people or so). Of course, this is like third hand information at best, so who knows - sounds cool, though.
I’ve survived many rounds of layoffs in the fifteen years I’ve been at my company. I’ve never seen anyone escorted off the property by security. This is in Northern California, by the way.
Of course, I’ve never seen anybody fired “for cause”, it was always just economic/business issues. Things could be different in that case.
When I was laid off, I met with the HR flunky (not my boss, interestingly enough. I have no proof, but I think he was laid off at the same time, too) who told me what was going on and both apologized (I’d been hired 6 weeks earlier) and wished me luck. He also told me that he’d need me to bring my laptop around. I went back to my desk, alone, sent a couple of emails (one to my husband, one to my friends), turned off the computer and packed up my stuff (I think flunky guy gave me a box). Then I took him the laptop, grabbed my box, and left the building. All unescorted.
It was part of a huge restructure by the venture capital firm that had bought my company, so there were a bunch more people laid off that day. By virtue of my hiring date (and the fact that I generally get in early), I think I was first. I’ve no idea whether anyone else was escorted out or not. I don’t really think so; it was a smaller company that valued their culture (tho’ it’s probably been greatly changed due to the layoff and new controller).
As everyone has said, the procedures differ depending on the particular circumstances, the type of employee, etc.
To offer another example to the mix, one of the executives at my old company was fired with an interesting method. The CEO basically arranged to have a meeting with him offsite and fired him there. The fired exec then came a week later on Saturday to get his things. No security escort.
Looking back, I guess that seemed like an ok method because it avoids the awkward humiliation as the rest of the employees watch you leave.
It just depends on the situation.
That sounds like a severe safety and fire code violation, unless you mean you could exit but only by setting off an alarm.
This practise seems to have gained popularity with the growth of computers in the workplace. The process is intended to prevent sabotage by a disgruntled employee. The cases I’d heard of at the time, where disgruntled employees were suspected of sabotage to software, turned out to be bugs in the code, not intentional acts. I imagine it did happen for real somewhere, sometime. Of course once the myth becomes well known, the chances increase of someone doing it.
The interesting thing is, it now seems to be part of a process of adding insult to injury at some companies. Perhaps to instill fear in the remaining employees under the idiotic theory that fearful employees are more productive. In one case I know of, it seems to have just been sticking the knife in further after a termination of an employee who told off the boss.
It makes sense when an employee is terminated for wrongful acts, such as crimes, but companies may be doing themselves a disservice when this practise is used without consideration of the circumstances.
On the other hand, many companies allow former employees, even when fired for cause, to maintain email accounts, and even provide out-placement services. It may not be a good idea to ask at a job interview, but if you have a choice of jobs, you might want to look at the termination policies of a company as an indicator of how employees are treated in general.
BTW: I’ve heard of a case where ‘escorted out’ meant the employee was observed while packing their boxes to make sure there was no theft of company equipment, then observed in the lunch room while other employees threw a going away party, then observed while hugging everybody in the company on the way out, while the manager who had to deliver the news apologized and promised to provide good references. So how it’s carried out can make a difference.
I’ve heard of this done in cases where the worker is office staff and has access to sensitive electronic information to ensure that they don’t wipe any computer hard drives on their way out.
Previous job: Person being fired would be given a box and allowed to pack up their own things, under supervision, but by their manager rather than someone from Security. They would also hand their access badge over to the manager, who would then escort them out of the building.
Current job: Haven’t had anyone get fired in this office, but someone who was laid off was able to pack etc. on their own. No Security escort or anything like that. Global company but a small local office.
Honestly, how many times does this need to be explained? There is no rule against swearing outside the Pit, and you may call any non-board-member a cunt.
I can’t imagine that it would work any other way.
In Germany like the non-US countries mentioned by others, it’s seen as an ‘American thing’ for normal terminations - the rare exceptions being immediate terminations for egregious (usually criminal) offences.
My impression is that private security at workplaces seems to me more widespread in the US too, so ‘under the watchful eyes of the boss’ would be more common even in these circumstances.
For example if I were terminated (other than immediately and for cause - I’d have to do something really bad for that to hold up in court - something like stealing, or throwing a punch at someone) my employer could ask me to stop working immediately, citing confidentiality concerns, but he’d have to pay me anyway until the end of my six-month notice period, so he’d probably keep me working for (notice period minus outstanding leave days) unless and until I got hired by a competitor.
Shodan has pretty much described what I would expect from being fired from a company here. Of course, there are A LOT of oil & gas companies here, and they tend to be extreme sticklers for things like this.
I personally don’t think it’s a bad thing; a disgruntled employee in the right position or with the right knowledge can indeed cause a lot of damage in a very short time. When my husband was unexpectedly fired from a job with a small company (for unjust cause), he was forced to work out a two-week notice. He had enough knowledge and access to completely torch the company’s computers, and there was no one there who knew enough to fix them. He didn’t, because of his own moral code, but somebody else getting an unexpected and unjust firing just might.
When I was laid off, I wasn’t “escorted” per se, but they watched me like a hawk as I walked to the elevator. Someone packed my stuff for me, too: while I was being told I was being canned, one of the HR girls slipped out of the room very subtly. As soon as they were done telling me what needed to be said, she walked back in with a box contained every damn last sugar packet from my drawers. All very choreographed. (They’d had recent practise.)
However, the whole thing was sprung on me: I literally had 7 different programs open on my computer, probably a dozen or two separate IE tabs/windows alone. None of this “send a quick email” thing **Snickers **mentioned. If someone sitting near my desk hadn’t heard the office gossip and didn’t know what was going on, they might’ve though aliens beamed me up and took me away. Since they packed my stuff for me, all those software programs were still up on my computer when I walked out of the building … taking most of the knowlege of how to do my job with me.
When I turned in my resignation at the bank I used to work for, my boss told me “Normally this is the point where I would have security escort you from the building, but I can’t run the place without you, so you’re just going to have to work out your notice.”
So, at least at that time, at that bank, yes, it was definitely standard operating procedure.
When the fire alarms went off (for drills), the main doors would automatically open. They were rotating doors and they basically folded into an open position. There were also other emergency exits with alarms.
I’m in the UK and it is standard procedure where I work, even people who are employed on a trial period are escorted off site when their trial comes to an end (if they are not offered a permanent job).
Huh? “Fired for cause” or “fired for just cause” means they fired you because YOU did something unacceptable - theft, insubordination, etc. In that case, you leave immediately and get no pay (because it was your fault).
At least in Canada, there is no 'sort of". Either you are fired for cause, or you are “laid off” - we choose not to have you working for us, but it’s not your fault. There is no “sort of”. You cannot give someone reduced termination pay because it’s sort of their fault too.
Less serious matters - poor performance, lateness , etc. - you have to show a progressive attempt to warn and correct the behaviour, and you better have a paper trail. The punishment has to fit the offence, so firing someone for the second time late would probably earn the employer maximal separation pay.
Canada is sort of half-way between Europe and the USA; you can fire someone (lay them off) if you just don’t want them working there, but it will cost you in separation pay. (Only time court will demand a rehire is if it was a human rights violation).
An employee not fired for cause is entitled to a notice period. As noted by others, many times making someone work when they may not have the company’s best interest at heart or could do damage is risky, so in lieu of notice a company often chooses to just pay the employee to go home. Either way, this separation pay depends on factors like how long the employee worked there, how hard the equivalent employment is to come by, etc. Typical professionals can expect somewhere around a month per year of service, legal minimum is about 2 or 3weeks. (Max 2 years’ pay). Layoffs can become expensive in Canada.
Then there’s Wallace damage. The courts have said the employer has an imbalance of power, so owes a “duty of care” to be fair to an employee. Wallace sued the UGG and got extra damages because they fired him, alleged he had misbehaved, and had security escort him out in full view of the other employees. If treating the employee like a criminal is unneccessary (no threat of violence or damage) then a supervisor rather than uniformed guards would have been plenty. If all it takes is disabling your userid during the interview (standard tactic nowadays) then why stop them from going to their desk or packing it themselves? Etc.
Of course, if they fire you for cause then all bets are off. Security escorts would be a logical step.
I should add - In Canada, AFAIK (IANAL) if they have cause to fire you and let you keep working after they know of the incident, then their grounds for firing you get pretty weak.
At my previous US employer, a financial services company, escorting uninstalled employees off the premesis was so common that the word ‘fired’ wasn’t even in the vocabulary. The euphemism (or dysphemism, as I see it) was that the person “was walked out”. This was for every case including routine downsizing.
If anyone is engaged in criminal activities where I work the police will be called, this has happened once in the 12 years I’ve been there.
A guy was photographing scientific equipment and advertising it on Ebay, when the item reached a high enough price to warrant him stealing it he would do just that. He was caught when another employee was trawling Ebay for a certain type of oscilloscope and saw an advert for his own scope, complete with a photo taken in the lab.
The police were called and came on site and arrested the guilty party there and then, we later found out he got an 18 month jail sentence.
In my experience it depends on your level in the food chain. Peons are always accompanied by security to pack up their desk and then walked out to much embarrassment. (I say this as someone who was a peon at one time and fired, not as an insult to peons in general). At a very similar company I saw managers fired for the same reason the peon would have been escorted out (job performance) and they were allowed to walk out on their own and have tearful farewells with coworkers. :rolleyes: