You can be as quickly dismissed as the guy reads off a piece of paper (for liability purposes), swivels the camera round to HR rep, and your access is cut off right after the call.
You have pretty much a minute or two (if that) to bye a sentence to a couple chats, and it's over. Done.
Oh, and swing by to return equipment. Thanks.
Not that it's worse by any previous measure. Just the process folks will go through: bloodless, swift, smooth. (They have a list to get through.)
You can always wish it never happens, convince yourself every dawn or dusk commit proves something, but only the present reality ever mattered.
Every student of computer science should experience a simulated firing. At least to consider beyond the "system under test" and reflect on business and capital, to think on the end of things along with its beginning.
Well they can't fire you totally on the spot in the UK, but I believe they can put you on immediate "gardening leave" where you lose all access to systems and buildings etc. You'll still get paid and are still technically employed, but you'll not be working on anything and can't go to the office.
I think there is some expectation for gardening leave to be available for the odd call or meeting for doing handovers etc, but realistically I don't think anyone would expect a disgruntled suddenly-made-redundant employee to really do that with any gusto or enthusiasm.
"you'll still get paid and are still technically employed, but you'll not be working on anything and can't go to the office."
Oh noooooooooo, anything but that!
Joking aside, seriously, part of why this is all so traumatizing in the US is because the second you know you're getting laid off, you're not even thinking about the job or anything anymore. You're trying to guess how much COBRA is going to be and hoping you don't get seriously ill in the next N months.
Seriously, COBRA is often so fucking expensive that being laid off doesn't just mean loss of income, it means literally suddenly getting a NEGATIVE paycheck each month, as you now have to cover the % of the healthcare plan your employer was paying for. If I got laid off right now, i'd immediately start paying about $6000/mo for my current policy under COBRA. Then, if you do need to use it, it's still got a deducible and coinsurance!
So yeah, that's why summary dismissal is so painful in the US.
I think i multiplied a bit too aggressively in my head. I think it'd be more like 2.5k/mo. I'm out of pocket $900/mo right now, and I think that's less than half, because my employer covers 100% of my premiums and 50% of the family premiums. So double that 900, and then add me in.
You can actually be fired on the spot, this is called "summary dismissal", but only applies in case of gross misconduct, so the cases that become "office lore" ;)
> For context, the OP is in the EU and UK, where none of the above is true.
In the EU many protections -- depending on the member state -- only apply under certain conditions. For example, employees in companies with less than 10.25 FTE do not enjoy any termination protection beyond very short notice periods (between 1 and 7 month) in Germany.
The pros remote wipe overnight while you are sleeping, or at the very least during the meeting with HR and your VP. Waiting to terminate access until after the bad news is delivered is just asking for trouble!
You have pretty much a minute or two (if that) to bye a sentence to a couple chats, and it's over. Done.
Oh, and swing by to return equipment. Thanks.
Not that it's worse by any previous measure. Just the process folks will go through: bloodless, swift, smooth. (They have a list to get through.)
You can always wish it never happens, convince yourself every dawn or dusk commit proves something, but only the present reality ever mattered.
Every student of computer science should experience a simulated firing. At least to consider beyond the "system under test" and reflect on business and capital, to think on the end of things along with its beginning.