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For many jobs, notice periods end up being given as severance packages. They keep paying you but don't want you to show up.

Well, California mandates at least 3 months *pay for salaried employees in many layoff scenarios. There’s some further complexities, but I imagine most employees at Twitter in SF qualify.

*technically, notice. But companies can opt to pay 3 months pay in lieu of the notice, if they want to cut ties immediately.

In many cases a severance package is attached to an NDA and non-disparagement agreement, or whatever else an employer may want to protect against ex-employees doing. In exchange for signing, the employee gets X weeks/months pay, or a bonus of $X, etc.