[lmm]

Where I live you'd expect at a minimum a month's notice from either party (in the contract); 3 months is reasonably common. That's not a long time to wait to leave (and you can reduce it by mutual agreement; most companies will be happy to let you leave earlier once you've handed everything over), but it gives you at least a little time to hit the ground running. As someone who's currently going through the legally-required consultation process prior to redundancies immediately after getting a mortgage, had the company been able to simply say "nope, you no longer have a job, don't come in tomorrow" it would've massively screwed me over. (Of course, in a world where that was a possibility my actions would have been different).

As for hiring mistakes, thee months' salary (you're allowed to simply pay an employee for their notice period if you don't want them coming in) is not a huge expense compared to the cost of hiring them in the first place.

So yeah; I would never work for a company that wanted to be able to fire me without cause at zero notice, and I'm willing to put up with having to give notice myself as a cost.

[nathan_long]

You make a good point, but having to give 3 months notice before quitting or firing is not the same as being unable to quit or fire.

[lmm]

Indeed, but an environment where you have to give 3 months notice before quitting or firing is not "at-will employment".