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Comment by oasisbob | Hacker News Reader

With at-will employment and layoffs being what they are, the only thing gauche about this would seem to be the lack of notification to the employer.

Having seen several mass "firing-squad" style layoffs where there's a meeting and some go right while others go left, I've always wondered why two-weeks notice is so engrained culturally when an employee decides to leave on their own.

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>I've always wondered why two-weeks notice is so engrained culturally when an employee decides to leave on their own.

I'm torn. On one hand, just not showing up is a pretty crappy thing to do to anyone in any situation. On the other, you're right; a company may be perfectly fine leaving you high and dry without notice. Sometimes people in our position get severance or even a heads up, but often times people don't. It's not fair, but I suppose the reality is that many will want a good recommendation, but no one pegs the boss with a layoff.

Do people actually call for recommendations? Hell I just use a coworker I worked extensively with. I've been asked to be a recommendation by previous co-workers and rarely get a call. It has declined over the past ten years. References seem to be a dead thing. It's a waste of time. Of course they are going to be positive. I can't imagine someone would list a reference where they say "fuck that person"

There's even services that you can pay, that will claim to be the so_and_so's supervisor or colleague or whomever to play the references game.

They are indeed worthless. Well, unless you're going through clearance paperwork that requires proof of people for things you say happen. Don't like there. It will come back and bite you; with felonies.

That sounds like fraud regardless if it is for security clearance or not.

Depends I suppose, I don't have any real data aside from my own experience. I've had some companies give previous employers a call (especially in regulated industries), some don't seem to care. They always ask though.

Definitely not a dead thing in my experience. All of my past jobs have reached out to all my provided references (as they confirmed with me after) to get a sense of the type of work I did & how it was to work with me.

I've given two references.

One for an intern that worked under me, and the company in question was super-thorough about it. They wanted data-supported statements, wanted to know about his projects, and so on. I felt like it was a useful conversation for that company.

One was for my old boss. The company in question pretty much wanted to know one thing: "Was he an asshole."

I've been called for about 75% of the references I've given.

It depends, but for my current job they took references seriously and I was glad to have good ones. Of course they will be positive, it's more about "can this guy scrounge up 3 people to vouch for him." If you can't, that's enough to draw a conclusion from.

It's all based on your relationship with your existing co-workers, and the current project(s) that you're on.

If, in general, things are going good, I'm just moving on, I'm not going to drop projects that I'm in the middle of. This is especially the case if I like my co-workers and would want to work with them again.

I'm not saying I think this is right, but people have so little social capital compared to companies. One mistake by an employee could follow them their whole career. A massive firing by a company will be forgotten about in the news by the end of the day. People will need work and eventually apply.

Any U.S. employer I've had would always either (1) give at least two weeks notice so the employee can find new employment, or (2) give at least two weeks severance pay.

In theory, at-will U.S. employers don't have to give any notice for termination, but in practice, is that actually very common?

In my experience this is only true for high skilled or white collar jobs. When I worked at a fast food restaurant there were no such protections, but that's when I needed them the most.

I think the main reason is pragmatic concern for reputation and not burning bridges.

It’s more about loss aversion than any real impact. Burning a few bridges has negligible impact in a healthy labor market.

It makes a lot of sense if you're doing a job where if you don't show up, they have to fill the gap right away. Not so much for software development, but the norms carry over.

In civilised areas of the world, labour laws stipulate that either side must give 4 weeks notice. There are exceptions to that (usually you can be fired with zero notice during your first one to two months), but you can't just quit, or just be let go on the spot if you're a normal salaried employee.

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