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(Warning anecdotal evidence) Having worked in China on a number of startups and worked alongside people who have had to fire employees, it's often common practi

(Warning anecdotal evidence) Having worked in China on a number of startups and worked alongside people who have had to fire employees, it's often common practice to just lock fired employees out of their systems. I've had this happen to people I know and had to do it once when letting a programmer go (which is nearly impossible to do after a probationary period due to the labor laws in the country, it's very very difficult to fire somebody, the company has to provide reason, pay social benefits, or face the employee in a court--forget it if you're a foreign company). I have heard stories of letting people go to find out that all of the work that employee did for the last month or two deleted, source missing, machines just wiped clean. I read that title and kind of laughed because, well, it is a seemingly commonplace response in some parts of the world.

yardie 16y ago
In my case I gave a months notice I was resigning and was locked out immediately. Imagine how much it sucks to come into work everyday with nothing to do except go to lunch. When I wasn't offering the other developers advice on the code I had worked on or APIs I was familiar with I was just shooting the breeze. This was the hole in the policy. It was designed to keep disgruntled employees from damaging the system but the ones leaving on good terms were treated exactly the same.
- michaelcampbell 16y ago
  This is more/less common in certain industries, and perhaps partially based on regulatory issues too, although I'm guessing there. I have worked on financial software the majority of my career; at one point in a Wall St. investment banking firm. The very explicit protocol there was if you were going to leave the 2 week notice was customary, but you would probably be locked out of everything instantly, and would be around for hands-off consulting at the whim of your manager for the duration. It was all handled very professionally and friendly, at least for me, and they let me keep working for the 2 weeks since anything I touched had a LOT of layers to go through before it ever saw production data.
  - Nick_C 16y ago
    Same industry for me, but in the trading area. It was standard for pretty much all firms that we were escorted off the premises immediately. I was touched that they let me stay for half-an-hour to say goodbye to people ;). Like you, it was done professionally and friendlily.

yardie 16y ago

In my case I gave a months notice I was resigning and was locked out immediately. Imagine how much it sucks to come into work everyday with nothing to do except go to lunch. When I wasn't offering the other developers advice on the code I had worked on or APIs I was familiar with I was just shooting the breeze. This was the hole in the policy. It was designed to keep disgruntled employees from damaging the system but the ones leaving on good terms were treated exactly the same.

michaelcampbell 16y ago
This is more/less common in certain industries, and perhaps partially based on regulatory issues too, although I'm guessing there. I have worked on financial software the majority of my career; at one point in a Wall St. investment banking firm. The very explicit protocol there was if you were going to leave the 2 week notice was customary, but you would probably be locked out of everything instantly, and would be around for hands-off consulting at the whim of your manager for the duration. It was all handled very professionally and friendly, at least for me, and they let me keep working for the 2 weeks since anything I touched had a LOT of layers to go through before it ever saw production data.
- Nick_C 16y ago
  Same industry for me, but in the trading area. It was standard for pretty much all firms that we were escorted off the premises immediately. I was touched that they let me stay for half-an-hour to say goodbye to people ;). Like you, it was done professionally and friendlily.