It’s pretty common to handle employee departures this way. I wouldn’t call it “firing” - the employee says they will quit, the company is just deciding the date

It’s pretty common to handle employee departures this way. I wouldn’t call it “firing” - the employee says they will quit, the company is just deciding the date the quitting happens. Usually it happens when the manager thinks the employee will be disruptive at work during the last couple weeks or so. I can’t speak to this specific situation - perhaps a Google manager is making a poor decision in this case - but in general this is motivated by considerations internal to the company and the team the employee is on, so you can’t really tell from the outside whether it’s a good idea or not.