Katyayani Shukla posted this on Twitter. Now she is in India, and I don’t know anything about Indian employment law, and generally write from a US (and sometimes European) perspective, but this is a question that comes up often. Why are employees expected to give two weeks’ (or more) notice, and employers can kick you to the curb via an early morning email?
It’s a good question. It seems incredibly unfair. One of my least favorite things is when an employee offers a notice period, and the employer terminates the person immediately. I find that to be absolutely immoral.
I once had a manager call me, enraged because an employee had told him on a Friday afternoon that today was his last day, handed over his laptop and badge, and left. The manager raged, “How could he be so unprofessional?”
I asked a simple question: What did you do the last time an employee gave two weeks’ notice?
The manager replied, “Well, he was going to a competitor, so I terminated him immediately.”
I still don’t think the manager understood that these were the clear consequences of his previous actions.
There is a rationale for terminating someone without prior notice. Now, if you’re terminating for cause or poor performance, the employee should be well aware that this is coming.
If you’re conducting a layoff, then the reason for not notice is practical. Terminated employees tend not to be happy to work. At best, they come to work angry and feeling betrayed. At worst, they sabotage things. The employees who were not terminated are unsure how to interact with their coworker.
It’s very difficult. In fact, so difficult and unpleasant that in the case of things like a company shut down or merger, where you need to keep a transition team who know they will be terminated, you have to offer large stay bonuses to keep them working.
What I recommend:
–Employees who offer a notice period and you don’t want them to work it: Terminate them immediately and provide them with pay through the end of the (reasonable) notice period.
–Terminate for cause/performance: The employee should know it’s coming and that they could have fixed it and chose not to, so just let them go.
–Termination as a position elimination: Immediate termination with severance and benefits continuation.
It’s better all around if disgruntled employees can move on, but do pay them, at a minimum, the amount you would ask from them for a notice period.
Position eliminations are sometimes necessary. Don’t be a jerk about it. Pay out a reasonable notice period and offer severance.