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Comment by skocznymroczny | Hacker News Reader

I think it's mostly an American thing. In Poland (and probably other European countries), under a normal work contract, you are told in advance about being laid off, at least two weeks I think. It gives you enough time to look for another job, and it gives you time to pass your work to your coworkers. No one really does retaliation here, it's all done in a mostly peaceful atmosphere, the laid off employee is trying to finish what he started and pass on the work to the person that will replace him.

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In Switzerland it's usually 2-3 months notice, for both sides. Depends on what's written in your contract. But escorting people out after firing them seems very harsh and overdramatic to me. Never heard of such things in Europe.

Rationally, the company is trying to avoid employees stealing IP, corrupting files, and sabotaging work. But the social signal it sends is "we don't trust our employees, respect them as people, or value their original contributions to our business. They are just replaceable cogs in our machine."

>>>They are just replaceable cogs in our machine.

Which matches how most corporations see their employees

They are Human Resources, to be consumed like any other resource

I'm in the US, and on a contract sure, as a contractor I was once told 7 weeks before that my contract was not being continued (new CIO put a freeze on all new hiring/contracts/contract extensions while they evaluated workload). That contract had already been extended twice.

Also once, as an employee not a contractor, I was laid off and while I was given time to say some farewells to colleagues I was politely asked not to attempt to log in. I had worked there long enough that I received 6 months severance pay so I had time to get another job.

FWIW, All of my career has been in the American mid-west in "employment at will" states. I've never been asked to sign a contract as an normal employee.

While a company has to give you a few weeks notice in Germany (unless you're fired without notice because stole something etc.), they can simply send you home with pay if they don't need you anymore or don't want to let you near sensitive data. I've seen multiple people who were fired and told to clean their desks and go home (but they weren't escorted out). But a least they got some paid time off to search for a new job.

Are you sure that's not because it is unusual for an IT specialist in Poland to be fired in the first place? Most of the time it is an employee giving notice because he's got a better offer elsewhere, not being laid off.

I've actually seen such thing in Poland for a DB admin - the guy was asked to come to his manager's office where he was told that he's fired, and other admins used that time to change all the production DB passwords.

It's mostly a US (not American, America is a continent after all) thing.

In Latin America getting laid off means being called to HR in the morning around 10:00am and getting told "you're being let go, please clean out your desk, fill in your boss on any pending work and finish your workday"

I've only seen one person escorted out of the building in the US way and that was because he was stealing corporate info.

American refers to people form the United States in colloquial language across the globe, so the person you replied to was correct in their use of American.

In the US, regardless of the way things are handled in terms of escorting/not escorting ppl out of the building - you do typically get 2 more paid weeks unless you were terminated for stealing etc. Some union employees get severance packages far exceeding the 2 paid weeks period.

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