Termination

CyberfiSecurity

I have been doing contract for the last 3 months. I just putting 2 week notice as part of agreement, 2 days later the contract holding company decided to terminate my contract immediately. Is that the norm as part of their retaliation? It seems like I am not volunteer to leave the job instead involunteer.

cyberguypr

It is more common that you think. Any time you quit it shouldn't come as a surprise if they show you the door immediately. Its' not necessarily retaliation. Some places have policies in place to protect themselves by minimizing risk of the soon to be ex-employee walking out the door with data or proprietary info. Don't take it personal.

srabiee

My former employer made it a point to terminate anyone immediately the day that they would submit their two-week notice. No reason was given.

My gf says her employer does it to anyone who isn't middle- or upper-management. I guess it's fairly common out there.

I don't agree with it though. Seems like a nasty practice.

CyberfiSecurity

As an independent contractor, I have ethical standard with all companies that I am doing business with. I respect their policies and agreements. I wouldn't give two weeks notice if it is not in the agreement. Apparently, they just terminated two days after I turned in my two weeks notice. And it is a friendly terminate, and I ensure that there no conflict of interests. I don't even retain any client information with me. It is okay though my new contract compensation 2.5 times more than the current one.

NotHackingYou

It is very common to give an employee the two weeks off with pay when notice is given. The thinking being that it's cheaper to pay for those two weeks than to have a liability. Generally you see this exercised when the employee has a lot of access to sensitive information.

CyberfiSecurity

Actually, it is a staffing company. If I don't work, they don't make money.

LinuxNerd

CyberfiSecurity wrote: »

I have been doing contract for the last 3 months. I just putting 2 week notice as part of agreement, 2 days later the contract holding company decided to terminate my contract immediately. Is that the norm as part of their retaliation? It seems like I am not volunteer to leave the job instead involunteer.

Exact same thing happened to me at a gig for a Fortune 400 company many years ago. The head NOC guy who I didn't care for unceremoniously escorted me out the door. Understandable from their point of view but rude.

This is a great topic and thanks for bringing it up.

petedude

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

It is very common to give an employee the two weeks off with pay when notice is given. The thinking being that it's cheaper to pay for those two weeks than to have a liability. Generally you see this exercised when the employee has a lot of access to sensitive information.

Yep. And not just sensitive information-- mission-critical equipment/services. What if a departing employee planted some malware or otherwise compromised a system before walking out?

It's not rude, it's CYA. Now, some companies that don't walk people out normally WILL shove people out the door early if the relationship isn't good (and yes, sometimes in retaliation), but that's rare (mostly smaller businesses).

Even beyond all this-- many companies see people slack off seriously after giving notice, so it's better to have the soon-to-be-departed head out than have them be disruptive or distracting.

JoJoCal19

My previous firm had a policy of giving a two week paid vacation upon notice, even though it wasn't something they announced, but I knew from others I knew that left. Some employers have the class to do that, some will immediately escort you out of the door upon putting your letter in your manager's hands. I prefer to work with companies that do the former.

markulous

It's a bit unprofessional for a company to do that. Someone is being respectful by giving 2 weeks to hire a replacement, something they are not required to do, then they just let them go anyway. Obviously if I knew that beforehand I wouldn't be giving them any kind of notice.

Danielm7

As the others pointed out, it's a CYA thing, not rudeness. The bigger issue with the OP is that they aren't paying him for the next 2 weeks. On the plus side, he'll be making 2.5x more, so he can probably afford an unexpected 2 week vacation.

JustFred

A colleague of mine was terminated the same way after putting in his notice. I really didn't like the way he was treated at all. Companies should not deal with people like that. A few years ago i worked for a company that literally changed the lock to the manager's office while he was in another place while being told he had been fired. Shameful and heartless.

BradleyHU

markulous wrote: »

It's a bit unprofessional for a company to do that. Someone is being respectful by giving 2 weeks to hire a replacement, something they are not required to do, then they just let them go anyway. Obviously if I knew that beforehand I wouldn't be giving them any kind of notice.

it usually takes way longer than 2 weeks to hire a replacement...especially if you got to put in job reqs, and go through several rounds of interviewing candidates, background check, etc...

Zartanasaurus

petedude wrote: »

Yep. And not just sensitive information-- mission-critical equipment/services. What if a departing employee planted some malware or otherwise compromised a system before walking out?

It's not rude, it's CYA.

If someone were to do something malicious, they'd have done it well before putting their 2 weeks in. Nothing CYA about it.

J_86

I've seen it both ways. At the last company I worked for I gave them a 3 week notice. I spent the majority of the time training 3 new people and documenting a ton of information. They really had no choose but to keep me around and they knew that, but everything ended on good terms. They even asked if I would be open to coming back as a contractor from time to time if they needed it. They were grateful I took the time to train the new people and stick around, it was the professional thing to do since the environment wasn't that terrible.

Previous to that when I worked in the banking industry, they terminated almost everyone as soon as they gave their notice. Their reasoning was they didn't want anyone taking customer information with them or doing anything malicious before they left. The only exception was IT staff and upper management, but I did see them terminate some IT staff right away after giving a notice.

I'm a contractor now and if someone gives their notice to the staffing company 9 time out of 10 they usually terminate them working with the client right away. I don't know why, but that seems to be their policy for some reason.

jibbajabba

In the UK we got the concept of gardening leave. Let's say you work in a sensitive position (like government), you resign and they send you home immediately .. BUT .. they don't kick you out immediately but you keep getting paid for the notice (since you are willing to work although they don't want you to).

Finance companies here in the UK have sometimes three months notice (I did too). I have seen two things happening

1. You are send home immediately but get paid for 3 months during your notice.
2. You are send home immediately but get paid immediately your remaining 3 months notice.
well or
3. You work your notice

Difference between #1 and #2 is basically whether you can start working in your new job immediately or not. With #1 you are still employed, albeit at home,whereas with #2 you are proper out.


Now in YOUR case however, I read it so they "fired" you two weeks early ? In that case I wouldn't be surprised if you could take them to court and sue them for the two weeks notice

paul78

I don't know about other companies but it's pretty standard practice where I work. If the individual isn't willing to disclose the new employer or if it's a competitor, we ask the individual to leave. If the individual is in sales or certain roles (management or security), the same could be done but more often we just ask the individual to leave and shut off access for the 2 weeks.

But for contractors, I can entirely understand terminating the contract immediately, there really very little reason to continue to pay a contractor if the individual is already on their way out and there's no further deliverables required.

W Stewart

petedude wrote: »

Yep. And not just sensitive information-- mission-critical equipment/services. What if a departing employee planted some malware or otherwise compromised a system before walking out?

It's not rude, it's CYA. Now, some companies that don't walk people out normally WILL shove people out the door early if the relationship isn't good (and yes, sometimes in retaliation), but that's rare (mostly smaller businesses).

Even beyond all this-- many companies see people slack off seriously after giving notice, so it's better to have the soon-to-be-departed head out than have them be disruptive or distracting.

Any disgruntled or otherwise ill intentioned employee can plant malware and then walk out whether they gave you notice or not. That's a mental decision that the employer has no way of determining until it's too late. If terminating someone early when they were professional enough to give notice has anything to do with security then it's a poor policy. I can understand early termination because you don't believe the soon to be ex employee will give it 100% or because you believe that they may be a distraction to other employees. Especially if they start talking to other employees about how awesome their new job is going to be and how they're getting paid a lot more.

the_Grinch

The MSP I worked for had a client call us up in a panic. Everything was down and they had just let their onsite guy go that day. We send out our engineer and he found he had removed all the router/switch configs along with randomly plugging network cables in all sorts of places. So I can see where they would let someone go who had access to anything mission critical.

NotHackingYou

IMO it's a perfectly respectable practice as long as they pay the employee. If they don't pay the employee, then it is unfair.

CyberfiSecurity

Well, the problem is not about confidentiality, or data breach issue. The problem is the staffing company and subcontract to me. The day before, the client still gained me more access even though I will be leaving in 2 weeks. The following day, the client and primary contract still called me asked me whereabouts and continue to work on the project. It is just their unprofessional company practice. I did not even giving them 2 weeks notice if there is no in written contract agreement. I just followed their simple agreement to avoid any legal issue. But hey, there is Glassdoor.com for a reason....

PsychoData91

I've heard about this happening alot. especially with contractors. Personally I don't really see the point because, honestly, IF I was going to be nefarious I would do it before I gave my 2 weeks notice.

I guess my thing is that it should really be a function of whether or not you feel like they're leaving amiably and if they're trustworthy. If everything has gone fine with X employee and they found a better job (and didn't fall sway to your attempts to woo them into staying) I don't see the reason why they would suddenly be untrustworthy.

goldenlight

Great topic. Thanks for posting. NOw I have something to look forward to when I ever put in my 3 weeks notice. Oh well It will be a nice break before starting new Employer

aderon

jibbajabba wrote: »

Finance companies here in the UK have sometimes three months notice (I did too). I have seen two things happening

1. You are send home immediately but get paid for 3 months during your notice.

Wait what? You can get paid for 3 months of not working when you put in your notice in the UK?

N2IT

I know several contractors who never give notice for this very reason. Not saying I agree with it, but they tend to give 0 notice and roll into a new project, especially if the project they are coming off of is relatively short termed.

PsychoData91

N2IT wrote: »

I know several contractors who never give notice for this very reason. Not saying I agree with it, but they tend to give 0 notice and roll into a new project, especially if the project they are coming off of is relatively short termed.

I can see their side of it. After the second or third time of saying "Alright, my contracts up in two weeks" and them responding with "Well, just don't worry about coming back"

Personally, the way I see it (I've never done contract work before), if you have a contract that runs 6 months. Then I don't see why you need to put in notice. You have an agreement to work through the end of April 16th (or whatever). They already have notice of when you will be leaving the company. The only reason to give two weeks notice (again, my understanding) is if you are leaving somewhere and they had no previous knowledge of it.

I guess I probably wouldnt be turning in my two weeks notice, I would make it a more informal "My contract is up soon" type thing. Maybe HR gets the notice and say "Well, if he's quitting, it's policy to go ahead and finish things" *Fires*

petedude

W Stewart wrote: »

Any disgruntled or otherwise ill intentioned employee can plant malware and then walk out whether they gave you notice or not. That's a mental decision that the employer has no way of determining until it's too late.

Yeah, they could have done these things earlier, but. . .People can do odd things when they're counting down to an exit. An impending exit, voluntary or no, can mess with an employee's head and make them do stupid things they wouldn't have otherwise.

TheChameleon

You may provide a clause in there to pay you if they terminate the contract within the two weeks notice but not sure everyone will accept this. Agree with all prior statements about the timing. Even in some cases as an employee you can be sent home after you give notice for the two week period. It really depends on the position and if there are transition requirements or not.

In your case it sounds like you could be released immediately and it limits the company's liability. It doesn't matter if you know 'you', they don't really know you or what you will do (download data, client files, etc) and simply part of protecting their business instead of something personal or a trust factor.

CyberfiSecurity wrote: »

I have been doing contract for the last 3 months. I just putting 2 week notice as part of agreement, 2 days later the contract holding company decided to terminate my contract immediately. Is that the norm as part of their retaliation? It seems like I am not volunteer to leave the job instead involunteer.

PsychoData91

I just got a job offer for a Tech Support job at a community college (Google apps for education and I'm pretty excited!) and I turned in my notice today. My supervisor and Manager both want me to work out my notice, but I have a feeling that once the COO hears he will tell me I dont have to show back up. Kind of screwing over my coworkers over, but that's our COO.

The really awkward part is I turned in my notice today (new company needed quick answer because if I could start on the 29th that I get 5 days extra vacation as a signing bonus) and on monday I have jury duty and the last day of my two weeks notice is a day i've requested off.

So, monday jury duty - possibly for multiple days -, tuesdays and thursdays I have half days because of class, and the second friday I took a personal day. I feel like kind of a jerk for missing so many days of my notice

CyberfiSecurity

Actually, I am liable for my own as a subcontractor. They are not responsible for me for anything because Corporation to Corporation pay. It is funny thing that the same company at different office called me 2 days ago asked if I am interested in Senior Security Engineer. I told them sure, if they are subcontract to me as a flexible project as I am running my own consulting business.