[user5994461]

The bar to be fired in large bureaucratic companies is usually pretty high. Like you'd have to physically assault your coworkers or steal money from the company account.

It makes zero sense to keep people who are being fired, they are being fired for a reason.

If you're talking about normal employees. They can take holidays anytime (what's the holiday allowance in the US?). Large companies usually have a concept of sabbatical, you can take a large break (let's say 3 months) after some years of service.

[barthvr]

> It makes zero sense to keep people who are being fired, they are being fired for a reason.

The problem addressed here was "is my reason valid". If you fire someone for the wrong reason, and then everything crumbles, having them on paid leave for 1 month or 2 won't hurt the company financially, and allow to test "how are we doing when X is not there anymore".

[user5994461]

And that's exactly why middle managers in large companies have zero power to fire. They can't be trusted to fire for valid reasons so they don't get the ability to fire.

Gotta go through HR and due process, that typically sets the bar to assaulting coworker and stealing from the company.

[devdas]

Or you give people low performance ratings repeatedly.