This kind of severance is a thing of the past.

I predict a new type of employement will emerge as a result of the late stage capitalism we are experiencing: the just in time employment. Where you are technically employed all the time but you are not paid [the same] when the corpo has you in the idle bucket. The drones will stay on for the health insurance, minimum pay, the illusion of work right around the corner. Heck, we also may have corpos form big pools of disposables that allow them to elastically scale the number of people that currently work on something up and down. Remember folks! JustInTime Employment!