Isn't there an unwritten rule about layoff timing that it's always on a Friday? Always do layoffs on Fridays so people have time on the weekend to calm down instead of going postal?
Promote on Saturday so that they're not distracted on a workday.
Specifically: incompetent bosses mis-citing a study supposedly saying it's a good idea to fire at the end of the week.
I'm not sure I'd count on an employee that's being laid off to really put in the effort to finish up his projects ;)
Maybe your remembering giving as news on a Friday so it gets lost by the media over the weekend?
Layoffs on Friday are awful. People have lives. They have appointments and kids’ soccer practice and grocery shopping and such. Now they have to reconcile that they’re unemployed during those tasks?
I’d call that respectful. Well, as respectful as you can be when you lay someone off.
Infact its better to get laid off early in the week, now you can do other tasks that are easier to do mid week as opposed to the weekend.
The person laid off can "take things in" just as easily mid week as they can on the weekend.
I understand that most(?) Of the US is an "at will" jurisdiction, but where I'm from all employment contracts have a notice period in them. So when employment is terminated, by either party, there is a 2-4 week period where the employee works out their notice.
Often in the case of lay offs there would be plenty of heads up before the official notice period as well.
Only in the most egregious cases of misconduct could an employer get away without a notice period.
The reason for this is because the HR person drafting this policy probably had someone take advantage of the window between when someone is told they are laid off and when they are actually terminated, and so the policy gets made to reduce that liability. It sucks for the 90% of people who wouldn't do anything, but that's how it works. Imagine getting told you're your laid off, then your laptop handed in before you even leave the meeting room, then a security guard or HR person escorts you to your desk to pack your things in a box before they walk you out the building.
Mind you, you'd probably still get some severance bonus or keep getting paid for weeks or months, but you just wouldn't be expected (or able) to work.
Because of labor laws in the UK, HR did everything they could to avoid laying off the UK office staff because the process and cost was prohibitive. We kept people in the UK office for years just because it would have been a pain in the butt to remove them even if they were redundant or basically had no tasking.
A Friday shit-can means you have to keep the rage up and avoid letting rationale thought take hold for a few _days_ before the opportunity for a shooting spree at work is available. And chances are you've got a support network that'll be available Fri/Sat night to go have a drink and bitch with.
A Tuesday shit-can means less support network (it's a work night for everyone else) and everyone you want to murder back in the office less than 24 hours later.
I'm not taking a position here, but I can see a definite difference between a Tuesday and a Friday lay-off.
Postal, or just depressed with the news, in may help to have higher odds for the comfort of others.
Going postal wasn't an option, everybody was working remote. I had to bring my work computer back to the office, and I had less hassle than I expected getting access to my desk to pack my personal belongings.