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Pretty standard to not let terminated employees hang around. It feels cold but it’s just the way it has to be. Sone places will even do this when an employee su

Pretty standard to not let terminated employees hang around. It feels cold but it’s just the way it has to be. Sone places will even do this when an employee submits a resignation on good terms. Just a way for the company to cover themselves.

davewritescode 4y ago
This was a well known thing at a company I worked for that was involved with government work. If you were leaving for another industry the last 2 weeks were for finishing up work and saying goodbye to your coworkers. If you were leaving for a competitor you were walked out within an hour of submitting your resignation and promised your 2 weeks pay. It was so well known that engineers would schedule vacations starting the day after they planned to resign and say their goodbyes to coworkers before telling their bosses.
- q1w2 4y ago
  I usually terminate access immediately. It's just solid IT security practice. I've seen WAY too many cases of employees email forwarding documents to their personal email the moment they are told they're being let go. Before we started terminating access immediately, I'd estimate that roughly 25% of employees would email themselves at least something.
  - hhmc 4y ago
    What were they emailing themselves, IP?
    - q1w2 4y ago
      All sorts of things. Sometimes it's code or documentation/guides they wrote that they believe they're entitled to... Sometimes it's personal things they kept on their work computer/account.... Sometimes it's contact lists... Sometimes it's strategy docs they authored... Sometimes it's password files (which often mix personal and work creds). Sometimes it's whatever-they-can-think-of that might be of value on the share drive... It's just so incredibly common that I don't understand why any employer doesn't terminate access the instant someone is let go. When people they're in a state of stress just grab whatever they can think of.
      - antisthenes 4y ago
        What about emails that they might need to bring up in court? What's the general way for an employee to retain access to those?
        q1w2 4y ago
        If they file a case in court, they are entitled subpoena documents that might support their case, including emails. There is an established procedure for that and company legal/compliance departments have legal-hold policies to freeze anything that might be relevant for a pending legal case. Trying to forcibly steal those documents/emails is a wonderful way to being charged with a computer crime if it's serious enough. ...but lesser consequences include public lawsuits that impact your career prospects (we did this to one high ranking employee who tried to email herself powerpoint strategy presentations she made and copied to a USB). ...but at the very least, having an attempted theft of documents on record will get any future allegations they might make against the company much easier to throw out.
refracture 4y ago
I used to work as a contractor at a help desk, the company was based on the east coast while the office we were at was back west. We hired a guy that while nice enough was not a good fit; he couldn't do the work. HQ decided that we would terminate him on Friday. I have no idea why, but the on site supervisor had gotten the perception that we had the go ahead to inform this guy he was terminated, and right before he was going to get escorted out he realized this was premature. We basically had to tell this guy, "You're fired, oh wait you're fired on Friday, carry on until then unless you want to quit before that.." it was a Monday or a Tuesday. We practically begged the company to move it up, our supervisor even asking to give the guy his own leave for the rest of the week to get him out of here. They didn't budge. Because of all the bureaucracy we couldn't revoke his building access or even his computer access; we risked getting in trouble just by disabling all of his administrator related privileges just because we didn't know what he was going to do if left to his own devices. The guy was a mess, he had left a decent job to have a shorter commute and it blew up in his face horribly. I felt awful because he wasn't a bad guy or lazy or anything.. he just wasn't a good fit and couldn't contribute. I remember talking to him later and him saying how humiliating it was to be sitting there knowing full well he was 'a failure' and just 'waiting to be fired', browsing the internet looking for jobs while at 'work'.. but wasn't willing to quit before hand because he needed as big a pay check as possible to support his family. I don't believe it was just because of this but do I do firmly believe this awful experience may have been a contributing factor to him taking his life later that year. It was such a garbage company. We had the reverse happen with another employee; local management was planning to let him go on Friday; somebody from payroll sent an email telling him to fill out his time card so they could process his termination. Cold? Maybe, but frankly to me it's a million times better than my experience with the inverse. I do NOT want people who know they're about to get canned hanging around. In the best case they are miserable and just wanting to leave.
- 999900000999 4y ago
  He also knew if you quit,even if verbally told your out anyway, unemployment is basically impossible to get. In my younger days I literally got unemployment 100% of the time I applied. In California unless you get arrested at work, your getting UI.
dixie_land 4y ago
Esp for finance institutions. While in colleague I interned for a major investment bank. They extended my internship since I was doing a good job and have a few weeks to spare. However IT did not get the memo and the very next day after my original termination date I came to my desk to find my machine wiped and account deactivated.
ciceryadam 4y ago
At one place I've worked at the company policy was to hand you laptop and badge in at 3pm in the afternoon. I had a scheduled meeting/shadowing a installation after handover scheduled at 2pm (due to timezone differences), but it had to pushed back till 5pm, so I kept my badge and laptop over the weekend and I've returned it on Monday morning. So not only I hanged around, I also made sure that my replacements had all the information they need and I saw that they can fulfill my duties :) Granted, it was me who gave in his resignation, but it was nice to see that the trust didn't erode during this leaving process.
a_chris 4y ago
This is absolutely untrue. In Europe we work several days/weeks after the layoff notice. You can fire people from the night to the morning only in US
- kamyarg 4y ago
  I have seen people fired in the morning and their access cutoff by noon and them being asked to go on "gardening leave" in Europe. This is rare but depends on your manager, if they don't want you around. You will still be paid for the remaining of your "employment" but will not be working.
  - robin_reala 4y ago
    It’s also more typical in situations where serious damage could be done by a malicious act. I’ve seen a UK Finance Director escorted from his desk because of this.
- the_lonely_road 4y ago
  Only in the US? What about Australia or Canada? What about China or Russia? You have no idea how hard it can be to fire a state or federal employee here in the US. I’m guessing there are regions or industries in Europe where it is easy to fire employees. The situation is so much more complex than US bad Europe good. Poorly constructed swipes like this are becoming more and more common and it’s disappointing.
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    Australia is at least a week: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/notice-of-termination-and-redundancy-pay https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/... Canada two weeks: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/labour-standards/reports/termination.html https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/servi... China, 30 days: https://china.acclime.com/guides/china-labour-law-hiring-firing-employees/ https://china.acclime.com/guides/china-labour-law-hiring-fir... Russia, two weeks: https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/5-503-4083?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/5-503-4083?transi... (Did you really think ex-communist countries would be good examples?)

davewritescode 4y ago

This was a well known thing at a company I worked for that was involved with government work. If you were leaving for another industry the last 2 weeks were for finishing up work and saying goodbye to your coworkers. If you were leaving for a competitor you were walked out within an hour of submitting your resignation and promised your 2 weeks pay. It was so well known that engineers would schedule vacations starting the day after they planned to resign and say their goodbyes to coworkers before telling their bosses.

q1w2 4y ago
I usually terminate access immediately. It's just solid IT security practice. I've seen WAY too many cases of employees email forwarding documents to their personal email the moment they are told they're being let go. Before we started terminating access immediately, I'd estimate that roughly 25% of employees would email themselves at least something.
- hhmc 4y ago
  What were they emailing themselves, IP?
  - q1w2 4y ago
    All sorts of things. Sometimes it's code or documentation/guides they wrote that they believe they're entitled to... Sometimes it's personal things they kept on their work computer/account.... Sometimes it's contact lists... Sometimes it's strategy docs they authored... Sometimes it's password files (which often mix personal and work creds). Sometimes it's whatever-they-can-think-of that might be of value on the share drive... It's just so incredibly common that I don't understand why any employer doesn't terminate access the instant someone is let go. When people they're in a state of stress just grab whatever they can think of.
    - antisthenes 4y ago
      What about emails that they might need to bring up in court? What's the general way for an employee to retain access to those?
      - q1w2 4y ago
        If they file a case in court, they are entitled subpoena documents that might support their case, including emails. There is an established procedure for that and company legal/compliance departments have legal-hold policies to freeze anything that might be relevant for a pending legal case. Trying to forcibly steal those documents/emails is a wonderful way to being charged with a computer crime if it's serious enough. ...but lesser consequences include public lawsuits that impact your career prospects (we did this to one high ranking employee who tried to email herself powerpoint strategy presentations she made and copied to a USB). ...but at the very least, having an attempted theft of documents on record will get any future allegations they might make against the company much easier to throw out.

refracture 4y ago

I used to work as a contractor at a help desk, the company was based on the east coast while the office we were at was back west. We hired a guy that while nice enough was not a good fit; he couldn't do the work. HQ decided that we would terminate him on Friday. I have no idea why, but the on site supervisor had gotten the perception that we had the go ahead to inform this guy he was terminated, and right before he was going to get escorted out he realized this was premature. We basically had to tell this guy, "You're fired, oh wait you're fired on Friday, carry on until then unless you want to quit before that.." it was a Monday or a Tuesday. We practically begged the company to move it up, our supervisor even asking to give the guy his own leave for the rest of the week to get him out of here. They didn't budge. Because of all the bureaucracy we couldn't revoke his building access or even his computer access; we risked getting in trouble just by disabling all of his administrator related privileges just because we didn't know what he was going to do if left to his own devices. The guy was a mess, he had left a decent job to have a shorter commute and it blew up in his face horribly. I felt awful because he wasn't a bad guy or lazy or anything.. he just wasn't a good fit and couldn't contribute. I remember talking to him later and him saying how humiliating it was to be sitting there knowing full well he was 'a failure' and just 'waiting to be fired', browsing the internet looking for jobs while at 'work'.. but wasn't willing to quit before hand because he needed as big a pay check as possible to support his family. I don't believe it was just because of this but do I do firmly believe this awful experience may have been a contributing factor to him taking his life later that year. It was such a garbage company. We had the reverse happen with another employee; local management was planning to let him go on Friday; somebody from payroll sent an email telling him to fill out his time card so they could process his termination. Cold? Maybe, but frankly to me it's a million times better than my experience with the inverse. I do NOT want people who know they're about to get canned hanging around. In the best case they are miserable and just wanting to leave.

999900000999 4y ago
He also knew if you quit,even if verbally told your out anyway, unemployment is basically impossible to get. In my younger days I literally got unemployment 100% of the time I applied. In California unless you get arrested at work, your getting UI.

dixie_land 4y ago

Esp for finance institutions. While in colleague I interned for a major investment bank. They extended my internship since I was doing a good job and have a few weeks to spare. However IT did not get the memo and the very next day after my original termination date I came to my desk to find my machine wiped and account deactivated.

ciceryadam 4y ago

At one place I've worked at the company policy was to hand you laptop and badge in at 3pm in the afternoon. I had a scheduled meeting/shadowing a installation after handover scheduled at 2pm (due to timezone differences), but it had to pushed back till 5pm, so I kept my badge and laptop over the weekend and I've returned it on Monday morning. So not only I hanged around, I also made sure that my replacements had all the information they need and I saw that they can fulfill my duties :) Granted, it was me who gave in his resignation, but it was nice to see that the trust didn't erode during this leaving process.

a_chris 4y ago

This is absolutely untrue. In Europe we work several days/weeks after the layoff notice. You can fire people from the night to the morning only in US

kamyarg 4y ago
I have seen people fired in the morning and their access cutoff by noon and them being asked to go on "gardening leave" in Europe. This is rare but depends on your manager, if they don't want you around. You will still be paid for the remaining of your "employment" but will not be working.
- robin_reala 4y ago
  It’s also more typical in situations where serious damage could be done by a malicious act. I’ve seen a UK Finance Director escorted from his desk because of this.
the_lonely_road 4y ago
Only in the US? What about Australia or Canada? What about China or Russia? You have no idea how hard it can be to fire a state or federal employee here in the US. I’m guessing there are regions or industries in Europe where it is easy to fire employees. The situation is so much more complex than US bad Europe good. Poorly constructed swipes like this are becoming more and more common and it’s disappointing.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  Australia is at least a week: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/notice-of-termination-and-redundancy-pay https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/... Canada two weeks: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/labour-standards/reports/termination.html https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/servi... China, 30 days: https://china.acclime.com/guides/china-labour-law-hiring-firing-employees/ https://china.acclime.com/guides/china-labour-law-hiring-fir... Russia, two weeks: https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/5-503-4083?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/5-503-4083?transi... (Did you really think ex-communist countries would be good examples?)