Given that he gave his 200 employees a 4 days of severance, he is clearly not "the man".
well if there's no money in the bank, how do you propose he give more?
I've been involved in a failing business and we knew more than 4 days out that there was no money in the bank.
Hoping the problem will go away rarely makes the problem go away.
I just got laid off from a large public tech company, and there was zero severance in the email.
Well in that case I guess it's ok?
As already mentioned, you do not get to the point of halting operations unexpectedly. They just hid it from all the employees to keep them from leaving. It's an immoral move IMHO and the sign of a business person I'd never want to work for or with.
I suspect they were holding out for Christmas sales, but even with that, the employees could have had a month notice.