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Comment by PhrosTT | Hacker News Reader

I think he/she just means a surprise account lock followed by the you're fired meeting. [ala finance industry]

You would obviously close off all credentials once they're out the door.

I always find it interesting how paranoid people are about this, coming from a country (Norway) where you not only generally have the right to 3 months notice, but also have the right to continue working during your notice period (a result of seeing work as a right and requiring very compelling reasons to take your work away). There are exceptions, such as e.g. if you're fired for cause, but they are quite limited.

In reality, it causes few problems - people likely to do something malicious probably already did it behind your back anyway.

Yes, same thing in Germany. The relationship in the US between employee and employer seems very hostile from our point of view, full of fear, mistrust, and legal issues. But I guess it only seems that way, due to cultural differences?

No, you have it right; that's your average employee/employer relationship in the US, it is basically hostile.

No, it actually is that way. And one party has a disproportionately vested interest in maintaining that hostility.

I worked for a place that notified an entire team they were laid off by locking them out of exchange. When individuals couldn't login they talked to peers and figured out what had happened 2+ hours before HR started talking to them. That company was all class.

My current company just had layoffs and most people found out when HR left the firing lists sitting face up on top of the copier to go to the restroom. I survived and I'm still trying to figure out if I want to bail too. I was pretty upset that as recently as 3 weeks ago we were asked to help recruit friends for a senior java architect position, and one of the laid-off engineers had only been at the company 7 weeks. It's just not right to fuck with people like that.

>I survived and I'm still trying to figure out if I want to bail too

Layoffs come in rounds. Just because you survived one round means no guarantees on the second or third rounds.

Ha, I didn't know that happens. Yes, definitely leave it open until you talk to them, and for however long you allow them to say goodbye and tie up loose ends. The greater context of what the original comment said seems to match up with what you're saying, but I didn't fully understand it.

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