Because you will be talking to other people, including the ones you have worked with and built a relationship with inside of the company. And the company has an interest in being seen as a viable place to work for others. So making sure that ex-employees are being taken care of (to a certain degree) is in the company's best interest.

It's at least somewhat typical in mass-layoff situations where the problem is business-related (i.e. not enough money or work) and not individual related (i.e. performance or personality). We had a round of layoffs at the Fortune 200 auto lab I was working at close to a decade ago and everyone that was laid off was offered contract agency placement (which guaranteed a job within, I believe, 1 month) and most were offered interviews at the Big 3 and a few smaller shops in the area. Most of the 30 or so that were laid off at our plant went maybe a week without work (which their severance more than covered).

I haven't seen it in the smaller companies I have worked for, but then again a 30 person layoff would be every single employee at those companies so they don't typically happen.

Yeah, I've never really understood this position. It's a ridiculously childish and entitled line of logic to have IMO.

I find it analogous to people who work for Amazon who whined about "not knowing I had to give my signing bonus back if I left before a year" after leaving because they didn't like the job after a few months... (come on, parts of being an adult is reading the employment contract that clearly states you can't keep your signing bonus if you leave before the first year...)

Small world principle.

Hang around a while. Tables turn.