[karaterobot]

A tangent: I think it would be a smoother transition we extended the professional expectation of giving two weeks notice to employees before they are let go. I'm more or less serious.

As it stands, employees give at least two weeks notice to employers before quitting, and employers give no notice whatsoever.

The benefit of the employee giving notice (from the company's perspective) is that management has a little time to move people around and try to cover for the missing person. The benefit from the offboarding employee's perspective is that they won't get a bad reference for their next job.

But, if an employee is leaving because they've found a new job (the most common case, I think) then they probably don't need a reference from this position, because they have their next job lined up already. Maybe it would be nice to have one later, but it's not strictly needed. At most, it's a weak enticement.

The obvious argument against giving notice to employees from a management perspective is that the employee will either sabotage the company, not do any work, or just take two weeks of vacation.

However, this is the case where the employee would actually need a good reference from their current company, because they do not already have a job lined up. If anything, you'd expect them to be less likely to behave badly than they would be in the typical case, where they find their next job and put in their two weeks notice afterward, because they need that reference.

When a company lays off an employee, they never give any notice, and the team with the missing team member is left to figure out what to do about it. Even though this can be a major disruption to the team, we don't typically hold it against the company: it's just how things are done. But, should it be?

Of course, the other reason to lay someone off without notice is that you can't afford to pay their salary for even two more weeks, but that's another situation. I'm talking about when someone is being laid off because of pro-active downsizing, or because they're not living up to their potential, or whatever.

[ipaddr]

When you get fired sometimes you do get notice, at times 3/6 months.

Many places will let you go immediately but are required to pay notice pay.

As an employee working notices are soulcrushing fearful periods where you have to find new work while working with esteem low. The layoff with pay allow you to refocus and reframe your experiences with a safety net.

[paxys]

From my experience at several (large, well-paying) software companies, I feel like this is already the case.

Employees who leave voluntarily will usually give as much notice as they can. There is no fixed guidance or expectation, but just good form to tell at least your manager as soon as you have made a decision. It isn't uncommon for people to publicly announce their departure 6-8 weeks in advance.

For people who are fired for bad performance, there is usually a PIP or other probationary period which would count as notice.

For layoffs, there will be severance (2-3 months is common).

The only time I have seen abrupt departures is for entirely unavoidable reasons – theft, sexual harassment, family issues, visas.

[d3nj4l]

Yeah, it's pretty rare to get a PIP that isn't basically a "You're being fired in 3/6 months" notice. It's unfortunate because getting PIP'd is pretty stressful, so it hurts your ability to find another job as well.

[plorkyeran]

In US tech companies the norm absolutely is not to fire people with zero notice or severance. It's typically more of a six month process where employees are explicitly told that they're on the way out at months before they're fired. When people are terminated immediately, it typically comes with a severance package of some sort (usually in exchange for a legal agreement to not sue the company).

[Macha]

So in my country the legally mandated minimum employer to employee notice after an initial three months is two weeks, plus an additional two weeks for every five years service of the employee up to eight weeks total. The exemptions are mostly limited to gross negligence or criminal misconduct. They can put you on garden leave for that time if they really don't want you in the building, but they have to pay you.