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No, no, no, no a billion times no to this absolutely not no The moment you give your resignation, there are good odds your company will say "we accept your res

No, no, no, no a billion times no to this absolutely not no The moment you give your resignation, there are good odds your company will say "we accept your resignation effective immediately. Goodbye." Sometimes it's a blanket company policy to do this, sometimes it's because they know you're going to a competitor and they don't want you to start training for your new job, sometimes they were on the fence about you staying anyways. Do not do this ever end. There is a significant chance you will be instantly fired with no income for months. Don't.

below43 3y ago
This happened to me. No good deed goes unpunished (in this particular case).
EliRivers 3y ago
The moment you give your resignation, there are good odds your company will say "we accept your resignation effective immediately. Goodbye." Genuine question; is this a US thing? I've never, ever seen this or heard of it happening. I don't think I've ever worked at a company that didn't state in the contract the notice period. I have seen companies decide they don't want that person on site anymore when someone quits, but they gave "gardening leave"; the person goes home and is effectively on holiday, paid as usual, for their notice period. There is a significant chance you will be instantly fired with no income for months. US "at will" kind of thing? Must be.
- rawgabbit 3y ago
  For some companies, when you give notice, you are flagged as a security risk. e.g., high chance you will take/steal IP. They will lock down your account, investigate your recent activities, and escort you out the door.
- lelandfe 3y ago
  Two of my friends did this and were immediately terminated and ushered out of the building by security. Both were very large companies in the US.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    When their former colleagues found out what happened, didn't that cause them to think "I guess I'll give zero notice when I leave"? I would think this would be a net loss for most companies, due to the predictable effect it would have on subsequent departures/handoffs.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      In general AFAIK they'll typically pay out the customary two week notice period but take away your physical and computer access. (By no means universal but plenty of examples in this thread of where it happens.)
      - gnicholas 3y ago
        If so, then no problem, right? My reading of the "two friends" anecdote was that it was somehow a problem that they were canned on the spot. If you take away my physical/remote access, I can't even be asked to help with handoff.
        ghaff 3y ago
        >If so, then no problem, right? I agree. It's the company's decision not to have you help with handoff. Not your problem. In fact, all the more reason to give two weeks notice as you'd be paid for doing nothing. (If they were immediately fired with no payout, they'd probably actually be eligible for unemployment though that's irrelevant if they have another job lined up.) I didn't take the same conclusion from the parent who didn't say anything about payments. In general, the norm would be to pay for two weeks--and maybe benefits to the end of the month. Someone can be terminated on the spot and still paid. (In general, they have to be paid out for accrued vacation time in any case.)
    - thatguy0900 3y ago
      If their policy is already to immediately terminate then does it make a difference whether they get advanced notice or not?
- scarmig 3y ago
  I did this in my first job, giving two months of notice because it was the right thing to do for my colleagues and the company since it'd allow transition time and continuity. Then I was let go immediately. Which was an unexpected hit, though luckily the new company let me move my start date up. This was a tech company with around one hundred employees, and I was in good standing (my then manager later recruited me for a position at a different company). The best approach is to always give two weeks formal notice on a Friday morning, with the expectation that there's a chance you'll not be coming back on Monday. Best to do all the transition preparation work before that moment. If I've got a manager that I trust, I let them know with a bit more informal advance notice. ETA: on the other hand, I gave a month or two advance notice to Google, and they were happy to have me stay until my resignation date. My sense is that it's smaller companies that tend to do the immediate layoff.
- PragmaticPulp 3y ago
  US person here who has participated in a lot of online advice/mentoring forums. I've never once seen a tech company immediately "fire" someone who says they're resigning like the parent comment claims. The only exceptions I can think of were when people gave multiple months of notice that they were going to quit and already had declining performance due to e.g. unhappiness about the job. If you're not performing well and you tell your employer that you're quitting in a few months, they're not really interested in giving you more paychecks to perform poorly. IMO, that's not exactly unreasonable either. Some companies will restrict the employee's access for the notice period and remove their work as a way of protecting company information from last-minute exfiltration (it happens a lot more than you'd think), but those employees are still paid during this time period. They're also obligated to answer questions and attend meetings about handoff, although in some cases this may amount to zero work. But no, it's not common for US tech companies to fire employees immediately for resigning. I don't know where the parent commenter got the idea that this is common.
  - itslennysfault 3y ago
    I think this MIGHT work at a lot of smaller companies, but BIG tech companies tend to have a policy that you are a security risk as soon as you admit you're quitting. I suppose that falls under the umbrella of "working for a competitor" If you work for Microsoft (for example) pretty much EVERY tech company is a competitor of theirs because they have soooo many products and services. I saw this happen multiple times. You tell them you're leaving, and get escorted out by security. It's just not worth the risk for them.
    - PragmaticPulp 3y ago
      > I saw this happen multiple times. You tell them you're leaving, and get escorted out by security. It's just not worth the risk for them. Right, but did they cut off paychecks too? Being walked out of the office is equivalent to having your access removed like I said above. It doesn't mean the person is fired, it just means they don't have access to sensitive information. In practice, it's not really a big deal. If someone is going from a high-paid FAANG job to another high-paid FAANG job, the new company is usually eager to have you onboard. They can move your start date up. New compensation might be higher, too, so it's a net win.
- gedy 3y ago
  Happened to me last year, US startup said "let's wrap this up today and not drag it out".
- rootusrootus 3y ago
  I've never had it happen to me, though in particular circumstances I've seen it happen with other people. But not with an immediate termination, just walked out the door -- they still got paid for the two weeks of notice they gave. Mostly it was so we could find out if any ostensibly automated tasks were in fact dependent on their ongoing work, while they were still reachable to answer questions. Perhaps related, this was all during my time as a unix admin, before I officially converted to a pure software development role. I've never personally seen a developer walked immediately out the door.
- bityard 3y ago
  No, it is not standard in the US. It generally only happens in exceptionally paranoid companies in sensitive industries or government organizations, which clearly exist but are already atypical workplaces. I've never seen the point in treating your employer as an adversary, as the OP of this thread clearly does.
- tyfon 3y ago
  Here in Norway, if they "let you go" immediately they still have to pay you for your contract notice time which is usually three months. There are some with six (my last job) or some with one. In my last job I was able to negotiate it down though as I wanted to quit earlier, it was the employer that wanted the six months in my contract. I was a key person in a start up bank so it's not a normal term to have.
- MisterBastahrd 3y ago
  Depends on the company but this is the default most client-facing jobs. It removes the possibility of a representative from passing along info to company clients and also eliminates the ability of reps to copy client data to take with them to new jobs.
- watsocd 3y ago
  You are not technically fired. At the company I worked for, you are immediately walked to the door and you will not be able do any more work for the company. You will get your two weeks pay. I am not sure what happens when you try to give more than two weeks notice.
- jjav 3y ago
  > > The moment you give your resignation, there are good odds your company will say "we accept your resignation effective immediately. Goodbye." > Genuine question; is this a US thing? At least in California/Silicon Valley I have never seen or experienced such a thing in almost 30 years, so I can say confidently it is not common. Of course it can happen, there are zero employee protections in the US. But it's not common. People generally give 2 weeks notice and keep coming in to the office (pre-pandemic) for those two weeks to meet with others and help transfer knowledge, hang out, do farewell lunches etc. Only on the end of the last day is your account access revoked. That's the expected convention.
ugh123 3y ago
Sounds like you don't have a good relationship with your company and/or manager, and a lack of trust and thats whats driving your "no, no, no...". What i've learned is if I can't have some kind of conversation with my manager about possibly leaving or being unhappy in the role, unhappy with compensation, etc.. then that is partially on me having let that relationship sour. Obviously a lot of this depends on the kind of manager you have, and situation with the company and loads of other factors.
PragmaticPulp 3y ago
> there are good odds your company will say "we accept your resignation effective immediately. Goodbye." No, it's not common practice for tech companies to immediately fire anyone who resigns. A 2 week notice period is basically standard in the US tech industry. Some companies will take resignations and then remove the employee's access to sensitive material (code, chats, documentation, etc.) but require them to be available for 2 weeks to participate in handoff conversations. They continue to be paid, however. It does happen that companies will immediately fired people. However, companies rarely do it because they stand to lose a lot of transition information and it also poisons the well for any future resignations. It also sets a precedent for remaining employees to not give any notice, which means everyone is going to start quitting without any notice in the future. This is bad, and companies want to avoid it. Giving extremely long notice periods (e.g. "I plan to quit in a few months") could push the company to move up your departure date, though. The only time long departure notice is really warranted is for executives and truly key employees. Most people over-estimate their importance to their company and their project, IMO, but in some rare cases a single person can be instrumental to a company. It's nowhere near as common as people assume, though. In practice, it's not really a huge loss even if it does happen. Most people get raises when they change jobs and the new company is often willing to move start dates up if you ask.
- uriah 3y ago
  It’s a pretty common practice to walk people out the door immediately if they are known to be going to a competitor. They would still be paid for the 2 weeks though
- paulcole 3y ago
  > No, it's not common practice for tech companies to immediately fire anyone who resigns It doesn't matter if it's a common practice. It's whether you want to deal with the uncommon outcome. The odds might be long but the stakes are high. Imagine in the United States giving 2 months notice thinking you're a good guy doing a mitzvah for your employer and then getting walked out the door and having to figure out COBRA insurance and getting by on unemployment and maybe a PTO payout if you're lucky.
DoneWithAllThat 3y ago
I have literally never experienced or witnessed this for any company I’ve ever worked for. This is just /r/antiwork leaking again.
bityard 3y ago
Most companies have a standard resignation policy, if you don't know what the policy is at your workplace, you should really find out. Usually, you can also get the big picture by watching other people who have resigned before you. I have worked at a company where the moment you signal your intention to resign, HR cuts you a check for your remaining PTO, your manager goes to your desk to collect your things in a box, and security escorts you out the door. But this was all well-known to everyone who worked there, so every departing employee made sure to say goodbye to their (trusted) co-workers before telling their manager. The company I am at now, they let you stay on for basically as long as you want, but one to two weeks is typical. Most people don't make their departure fully public until their last day. If your current company is the latter, then jumping ship without giving your manager and co-workers any kind of heads-up is a great way to burn bridges you might need in the future.
karaterobot 3y ago
This doesn't seem correct to me. I've been in the industry coming up on 20 years, and I've never seen a company send someone home after putting in notice of resignation. Perhaps it happened and I didn't know about it, I can't rule that out, but I know that the majority of cases have not worked this way. It's difficult to imagine why they would do this, since it would remove all the cushion that 2+ week period would provide the company for getting projects closed and documented, and bringing new people on to take over the employee's projects. It turns an unfortunate situation into an immediate crisis. I have seen (recently) a company say "please, we are begging you not to resign, would you like to take a sabbatical and we can talk about it when you're back?"
- locusofself 3y ago
  > I've never seen a company send someone home after putting in notice of resignation. only for people really underperforming, or going to a competitor
  - jjav 3y ago
    > or going to a competitor Never say where you are going when you resign. That's standard practice (California, anyway) and nobody will ask.
- mcherm 3y ago
  > I've been in the industry coming up on 20 years, and I've never seen a company send someone home after putting in notice of resignation. I have worked at a company that had a blanket policy of always doing this. Let me be clear: it was a dumb policy. It resulted in employees waiting until their last day to tell the company that they were planning to leave. It created all kinds of havoc with the lack of knowledge transfer and handoff. And if it was intended to prevent exiting employee from taking malicious actions, it was completely ineffective at that since the employee would know about the policy and would choose not to disclose that they were leaving until after the head undertaken any malicious action. But, I can say with some confidence that there are some tech companies that do this.
banannaise 3y ago
The response to this is "What you mean is that I'm fired, and I will be contacting the unemployment office immediately."
hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
I love when someone has an experience which is rather unique to them (or at least definitely not universal) and vehemently shouts in absolutes. I definitely agree with the article. I've given extended notice for many jobs I've left (again, usually on the order of several months). I had a good relationship with my manager, and I like to leave stuff "tied up with a bow". Similar to the experience in the article, it was good for both me and my employer. I'm sorry you didn't have a relationship with your employer where you felt this was possible. And to be clear, I don't believe my experience is universal, but I think if most people stop to think about it, they will be able to figure out how their employer will respond.
- BoorishBears 3y ago
  Nothing about their comment is unique to an experience, yours on the other hand... Risk isn't just about the likelihood, it's also the outcome. Even if your manager loves you to death and there's just a .1% chance you misread the situation and your early notice goes wrong... the result of that .1% occurrence could be disastrous. On the other hand, if a 2 week notice is likely to screw over your team, that's a sign of a bad employer. If 2 full weeks of notice isn't enough to stabilize things enough for you to leave on good terms, what happens if you're injured tomorrow? 2 weeks notice is good. The most you should do earlier than 2 weeks is start documenting the unwritten parts of your process and start getting others to understand those. A good manager will enable that without you saying you're walking out the door.
  - P_I_Staker 3y ago
    3-4 weeks is okay too, but this super advanced notice stuff seems bizarre to me. It's a nice thing to do for some jobs, but a really bad idea for 70-90% of us. Plus, IME nobody wants to wait that long.
dbg31415 3y ago
This. 100%. You never let someone who gives notice keep their badge. You just say, "Congrats, there's the door. Cheers!" You have no control over someone who has given notice. If they do good work... that's great. But if they do shit work, what are you going to do, fire them? The liabilities are outrageous, and the payoff is only 2-weeks dev time (if you're lucky)... at the regular rate... Nah, not worth it. And you have that person in the office talking about how they're moving on to a better role, with more pay, and it can quickly turn into a cancer for team morale. I have never seen an article with such horrible career advice on Hacker News. This is bad advice.
- briHass 3y ago
  What is cancer for team morale is that their coworker, Bob, was here yesterday and today he's gone. Was he fired? Did he rage quit? Neither one makes the employer look good or gives me confidence I should stick around. I've always paid close attention to how my employers behave when someone gives notice: how you treat people/are treated when conditions aren't ideal shows you the true character of those involved. If the employer acts like a jerk, I know I'll get equal or worse treatment. I won't extend them any curtesy when I leave, which will likely be sooner rather than later based on their approach. That said, I disagree with the article. In the US, we're lucky to have a common expectation: 2 weeks. I've added an additional week for small companies, but I'd never do more than that. 2 weeks is plenty, and quickly feels like being persona-non-grata.
- elzbardico 3y ago
  Yeah, because people magically become mischievous spies for the competitor the moment they give notice. All this time they were job-hunting, doing interviews, and negotiating offers, it was just for fun, and they were still the "good guys". But the moment they communicate a decision to leave that they actually made a long time ago, when they started looking for another job, they automatically become Osama Bin Laden. Sure, it makes a lot of sense...
hot_gril 3y ago
Am I missing something, or is this simple? You give the standard 2-week notice (or whatever your contract said), that's it. Up to you and them how you spend the final two weeks. Idk what the alternative is. You tell them you want to quit in 2 months? Nobody does that.
Apofis 3y ago
They even get the smell you might be shopping around and you are toast. This article is shit advice. I had Google recruit me for L6/7 and I was exuberant about it on LinkedIn, really really really bad idea to even mention it.

below43 3y ago

This happened to me. No good deed goes unpunished (in this particular case).

EliRivers 3y ago

The moment you give your resignation, there are good odds your company will say "we accept your resignation effective immediately. Goodbye." Genuine question; is this a US thing? I've never, ever seen this or heard of it happening. I don't think I've ever worked at a company that didn't state in the contract the notice period. I have seen companies decide they don't want that person on site anymore when someone quits, but they gave "gardening leave"; the person goes home and is effectively on holiday, paid as usual, for their notice period. There is a significant chance you will be instantly fired with no income for months. US "at will" kind of thing? Must be.

rawgabbit 3y ago
For some companies, when you give notice, you are flagged as a security risk. e.g., high chance you will take/steal IP. They will lock down your account, investigate your recent activities, and escort you out the door.
lelandfe 3y ago
Two of my friends did this and were immediately terminated and ushered out of the building by security. Both were very large companies in the US.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  When their former colleagues found out what happened, didn't that cause them to think "I guess I'll give zero notice when I leave"? I would think this would be a net loss for most companies, due to the predictable effect it would have on subsequent departures/handoffs.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    In general AFAIK they'll typically pay out the customary two week notice period but take away your physical and computer access. (By no means universal but plenty of examples in this thread of where it happens.)
    - gnicholas 3y ago
      If so, then no problem, right? My reading of the "two friends" anecdote was that it was somehow a problem that they were canned on the spot. If you take away my physical/remote access, I can't even be asked to help with handoff.
      - ghaff 3y ago
        >If so, then no problem, right? I agree. It's the company's decision not to have you help with handoff. Not your problem. In fact, all the more reason to give two weeks notice as you'd be paid for doing nothing. (If they were immediately fired with no payout, they'd probably actually be eligible for unemployment though that's irrelevant if they have another job lined up.) I didn't take the same conclusion from the parent who didn't say anything about payments. In general, the norm would be to pay for two weeks--and maybe benefits to the end of the month. Someone can be terminated on the spot and still paid. (In general, they have to be paid out for accrued vacation time in any case.)
  - thatguy0900 3y ago
    If their policy is already to immediately terminate then does it make a difference whether they get advanced notice or not?
scarmig 3y ago
I did this in my first job, giving two months of notice because it was the right thing to do for my colleagues and the company since it'd allow transition time and continuity. Then I was let go immediately. Which was an unexpected hit, though luckily the new company let me move my start date up. This was a tech company with around one hundred employees, and I was in good standing (my then manager later recruited me for a position at a different company). The best approach is to always give two weeks formal notice on a Friday morning, with the expectation that there's a chance you'll not be coming back on Monday. Best to do all the transition preparation work before that moment. If I've got a manager that I trust, I let them know with a bit more informal advance notice. ETA: on the other hand, I gave a month or two advance notice to Google, and they were happy to have me stay until my resignation date. My sense is that it's smaller companies that tend to do the immediate layoff.
PragmaticPulp 3y ago
US person here who has participated in a lot of online advice/mentoring forums. I've never once seen a tech company immediately "fire" someone who says they're resigning like the parent comment claims. The only exceptions I can think of were when people gave multiple months of notice that they were going to quit and already had declining performance due to e.g. unhappiness about the job. If you're not performing well and you tell your employer that you're quitting in a few months, they're not really interested in giving you more paychecks to perform poorly. IMO, that's not exactly unreasonable either. Some companies will restrict the employee's access for the notice period and remove their work as a way of protecting company information from last-minute exfiltration (it happens a lot more than you'd think), but those employees are still paid during this time period. They're also obligated to answer questions and attend meetings about handoff, although in some cases this may amount to zero work. But no, it's not common for US tech companies to fire employees immediately for resigning. I don't know where the parent commenter got the idea that this is common.
- itslennysfault 3y ago
  I think this MIGHT work at a lot of smaller companies, but BIG tech companies tend to have a policy that you are a security risk as soon as you admit you're quitting. I suppose that falls under the umbrella of "working for a competitor" If you work for Microsoft (for example) pretty much EVERY tech company is a competitor of theirs because they have soooo many products and services. I saw this happen multiple times. You tell them you're leaving, and get escorted out by security. It's just not worth the risk for them.
  - PragmaticPulp 3y ago
    > I saw this happen multiple times. You tell them you're leaving, and get escorted out by security. It's just not worth the risk for them. Right, but did they cut off paychecks too? Being walked out of the office is equivalent to having your access removed like I said above. It doesn't mean the person is fired, it just means they don't have access to sensitive information. In practice, it's not really a big deal. If someone is going from a high-paid FAANG job to another high-paid FAANG job, the new company is usually eager to have you onboard. They can move your start date up. New compensation might be higher, too, so it's a net win.
gedy 3y ago
Happened to me last year, US startup said "let's wrap this up today and not drag it out".
rootusrootus 3y ago
I've never had it happen to me, though in particular circumstances I've seen it happen with other people. But not with an immediate termination, just walked out the door -- they still got paid for the two weeks of notice they gave. Mostly it was so we could find out if any ostensibly automated tasks were in fact dependent on their ongoing work, while they were still reachable to answer questions. Perhaps related, this was all during my time as a unix admin, before I officially converted to a pure software development role. I've never personally seen a developer walked immediately out the door.
bityard 3y ago
No, it is not standard in the US. It generally only happens in exceptionally paranoid companies in sensitive industries or government organizations, which clearly exist but are already atypical workplaces. I've never seen the point in treating your employer as an adversary, as the OP of this thread clearly does.
tyfon 3y ago
Here in Norway, if they "let you go" immediately they still have to pay you for your contract notice time which is usually three months. There are some with six (my last job) or some with one. In my last job I was able to negotiate it down though as I wanted to quit earlier, it was the employer that wanted the six months in my contract. I was a key person in a start up bank so it's not a normal term to have.
MisterBastahrd 3y ago
Depends on the company but this is the default most client-facing jobs. It removes the possibility of a representative from passing along info to company clients and also eliminates the ability of reps to copy client data to take with them to new jobs.
watsocd 3y ago
You are not technically fired. At the company I worked for, you are immediately walked to the door and you will not be able do any more work for the company. You will get your two weeks pay. I am not sure what happens when you try to give more than two weeks notice.
jjav 3y ago
> > The moment you give your resignation, there are good odds your company will say "we accept your resignation effective immediately. Goodbye." > Genuine question; is this a US thing? At least in California/Silicon Valley I have never seen or experienced such a thing in almost 30 years, so I can say confidently it is not common. Of course it can happen, there are zero employee protections in the US. But it's not common. People generally give 2 weeks notice and keep coming in to the office (pre-pandemic) for those two weeks to meet with others and help transfer knowledge, hang out, do farewell lunches etc. Only on the end of the last day is your account access revoked. That's the expected convention.

ugh123 3y ago

Sounds like you don't have a good relationship with your company and/or manager, and a lack of trust and thats whats driving your "no, no, no...". What i've learned is if I can't have some kind of conversation with my manager about possibly leaving or being unhappy in the role, unhappy with compensation, etc.. then that is partially on me having let that relationship sour. Obviously a lot of this depends on the kind of manager you have, and situation with the company and loads of other factors.

PragmaticPulp 3y ago

> there are good odds your company will say "we accept your resignation effective immediately. Goodbye." No, it's not common practice for tech companies to immediately fire anyone who resigns. A 2 week notice period is basically standard in the US tech industry. Some companies will take resignations and then remove the employee's access to sensitive material (code, chats, documentation, etc.) but require them to be available for 2 weeks to participate in handoff conversations. They continue to be paid, however. It does happen that companies will immediately fired people. However, companies rarely do it because they stand to lose a lot of transition information and it also poisons the well for any future resignations. It also sets a precedent for remaining employees to not give any notice, which means everyone is going to start quitting without any notice in the future. This is bad, and companies want to avoid it. Giving extremely long notice periods (e.g. "I plan to quit in a few months") could push the company to move up your departure date, though. The only time long departure notice is really warranted is for executives and truly key employees. Most people over-estimate their importance to their company and their project, IMO, but in some rare cases a single person can be instrumental to a company. It's nowhere near as common as people assume, though. In practice, it's not really a huge loss even if it does happen. Most people get raises when they change jobs and the new company is often willing to move start dates up if you ask.

uriah 3y ago
It’s a pretty common practice to walk people out the door immediately if they are known to be going to a competitor. They would still be paid for the 2 weeks though
paulcole 3y ago
> No, it's not common practice for tech companies to immediately fire anyone who resigns It doesn't matter if it's a common practice. It's whether you want to deal with the uncommon outcome. The odds might be long but the stakes are high. Imagine in the United States giving 2 months notice thinking you're a good guy doing a mitzvah for your employer and then getting walked out the door and having to figure out COBRA insurance and getting by on unemployment and maybe a PTO payout if you're lucky.

DoneWithAllThat 3y ago

I have literally never experienced or witnessed this for any company I’ve ever worked for. This is just /r/antiwork leaking again.

bityard 3y ago

Most companies have a standard resignation policy, if you don't know what the policy is at your workplace, you should really find out. Usually, you can also get the big picture by watching other people who have resigned before you. I have worked at a company where the moment you signal your intention to resign, HR cuts you a check for your remaining PTO, your manager goes to your desk to collect your things in a box, and security escorts you out the door. But this was all well-known to everyone who worked there, so every departing employee made sure to say goodbye to their (trusted) co-workers before telling their manager. The company I am at now, they let you stay on for basically as long as you want, but one to two weeks is typical. Most people don't make their departure fully public until their last day. If your current company is the latter, then jumping ship without giving your manager and co-workers any kind of heads-up is a great way to burn bridges you might need in the future.

karaterobot 3y ago

This doesn't seem correct to me. I've been in the industry coming up on 20 years, and I've never seen a company send someone home after putting in notice of resignation. Perhaps it happened and I didn't know about it, I can't rule that out, but I know that the majority of cases have not worked this way. It's difficult to imagine why they would do this, since it would remove all the cushion that 2+ week period would provide the company for getting projects closed and documented, and bringing new people on to take over the employee's projects. It turns an unfortunate situation into an immediate crisis. I have seen (recently) a company say "please, we are begging you not to resign, would you like to take a sabbatical and we can talk about it when you're back?"

locusofself 3y ago
> I've never seen a company send someone home after putting in notice of resignation. only for people really underperforming, or going to a competitor
- jjav 3y ago
  > or going to a competitor Never say where you are going when you resign. That's standard practice (California, anyway) and nobody will ask.
mcherm 3y ago
> I've been in the industry coming up on 20 years, and I've never seen a company send someone home after putting in notice of resignation. I have worked at a company that had a blanket policy of always doing this. Let me be clear: it was a dumb policy. It resulted in employees waiting until their last day to tell the company that they were planning to leave. It created all kinds of havoc with the lack of knowledge transfer and handoff. And if it was intended to prevent exiting employee from taking malicious actions, it was completely ineffective at that since the employee would know about the policy and would choose not to disclose that they were leaving until after the head undertaken any malicious action. But, I can say with some confidence that there are some tech companies that do this.

banannaise 3y ago

The response to this is "What you mean is that I'm fired, and I will be contacting the unemployment office immediately."

hn_throwaway_99 3y ago

I love when someone has an experience which is rather unique to them (or at least definitely not universal) and vehemently shouts in absolutes. I definitely agree with the article. I've given extended notice for many jobs I've left (again, usually on the order of several months). I had a good relationship with my manager, and I like to leave stuff "tied up with a bow". Similar to the experience in the article, it was good for both me and my employer. I'm sorry you didn't have a relationship with your employer where you felt this was possible. And to be clear, I don't believe my experience is universal, but I think if most people stop to think about it, they will be able to figure out how their employer will respond.

BoorishBears 3y ago
Nothing about their comment is unique to an experience, yours on the other hand... Risk isn't just about the likelihood, it's also the outcome. Even if your manager loves you to death and there's just a .1% chance you misread the situation and your early notice goes wrong... the result of that .1% occurrence could be disastrous. On the other hand, if a 2 week notice is likely to screw over your team, that's a sign of a bad employer. If 2 full weeks of notice isn't enough to stabilize things enough for you to leave on good terms, what happens if you're injured tomorrow? 2 weeks notice is good. The most you should do earlier than 2 weeks is start documenting the unwritten parts of your process and start getting others to understand those. A good manager will enable that without you saying you're walking out the door.
- P_I_Staker 3y ago
  3-4 weeks is okay too, but this super advanced notice stuff seems bizarre to me. It's a nice thing to do for some jobs, but a really bad idea for 70-90% of us. Plus, IME nobody wants to wait that long.

dbg31415 3y ago

This. 100%. You never let someone who gives notice keep their badge. You just say, "Congrats, there's the door. Cheers!" You have no control over someone who has given notice. If they do good work... that's great. But if they do shit work, what are you going to do, fire them? The liabilities are outrageous, and the payoff is only 2-weeks dev time (if you're lucky)... at the regular rate... Nah, not worth it. And you have that person in the office talking about how they're moving on to a better role, with more pay, and it can quickly turn into a cancer for team morale. I have never seen an article with such horrible career advice on Hacker News. This is bad advice.

briHass 3y ago
What is cancer for team morale is that their coworker, Bob, was here yesterday and today he's gone. Was he fired? Did he rage quit? Neither one makes the employer look good or gives me confidence I should stick around. I've always paid close attention to how my employers behave when someone gives notice: how you treat people/are treated when conditions aren't ideal shows you the true character of those involved. If the employer acts like a jerk, I know I'll get equal or worse treatment. I won't extend them any curtesy when I leave, which will likely be sooner rather than later based on their approach. That said, I disagree with the article. In the US, we're lucky to have a common expectation: 2 weeks. I've added an additional week for small companies, but I'd never do more than that. 2 weeks is plenty, and quickly feels like being persona-non-grata.
elzbardico 3y ago
Yeah, because people magically become mischievous spies for the competitor the moment they give notice. All this time they were job-hunting, doing interviews, and negotiating offers, it was just for fun, and they were still the "good guys". But the moment they communicate a decision to leave that they actually made a long time ago, when they started looking for another job, they automatically become Osama Bin Laden. Sure, it makes a lot of sense...

hot_gril 3y ago

Am I missing something, or is this simple? You give the standard 2-week notice (or whatever your contract said), that's it. Up to you and them how you spend the final two weeks. Idk what the alternative is. You tell them you want to quit in 2 months? Nobody does that.

Apofis 3y ago

They even get the smell you might be shopping around and you are toast. This article is shit advice. I had Google recruit me for L6/7 and I was exuberant about it on LinkedIn, really really really bad idea to even mention it.