I once got called at home the Monday after I'd left a company to hear that I'd been "laid off". The previous Friday had been my official last day (planned exit, I was going off to college), but I had banked a bunch of unused vacation days, and they were calling to let me know that they wouldn't be able to pay out the remainder of my vacation pay.
Much later, when I got into the workforce for real, I learned that I could've collected unemployment checks for this, and that if I'd played my cards right, I could've been drawing unemployment for my first year at college. Ah well - one of my coworkers told me "If you'd done that, I might have to hate you. Unemployment is for workers who need it, not college students who take a gap year at a dot-com."
Additionally, California has additional protections for workers, such as requiring immediate payment for all wages, including accrued vacation, upon termination: http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_paydays.htm
It was Massachusetts. A number of people told me later that I could've collected, and a quick glance through Massachusett's Unemployment Insurance FAQ shows no mention of being a student other than UI not covering student work-study programs for financial aid:
I didn't because it never occurred to me - as far as I was concerned, I left my job normally to go to college and they just didn't pay out the vacation pay. I wasn't hurting for money then or now (I was still living with my parents at the time), so I don't really regret it, but it does appear to be a real, genuine loophole in the system.
Even worse, when I worked at "chip manufacturing plant", the construction crews would _regularly_ be laid off, unemployment would be drawn, then magically re-hired months later. Working the system...
Being a casualty in room A must be devastating. I've been a survivor in room B 3 times and each time I resented the turmoil of being happy for me and sad for them.
Company wide meeting called. Survivors were warned beforehand and told to sneak off to lunch. While in the meeting they locked us out of our computers.
For bonus points, do it on the 31st of the month so nobody has health care the next day.
Assuming you're in the US, that's not how healthcare works.
You'd still be covered by your current plan as part of the provisions of COBRA. You have 60 days to elect coverage, if you had a medical need at any point during that time, you could seek care immediately and then deal with the paperwork later.
If you get laid off today in the US, you have two full months to either 1) sign up via COBRA to stay on your old plan 2) sign up for a new individual plan or 3) start a new job and move to your new employers plan.
He probably means that healthcare coverage is typically through the end of the month. If you're planning on quitting, do it on the first day of the month so you have coverage before even needing to think about COBRA.
I mean each time, the survivors all do the "wow this sucks, but at least we made it" motions. Then a portion of them go grab a beer and inevitably talk about what a mistake it was to lose person X and the disbelief that useless person Y is still around. Then a portion of them talk about finding work at a better company.
The one time I did leave, I think the entire survivor group went through the above ritual. There was a lot of anecdotes revealed by various people that pretty much convinced everyone to leave before the next round.
I have a sample size of 3 so now idea how normal my experiences are.