It's possible to do layoffs in a completely different way, but it takes time and management patience. When Nokia fired thousands of employees back in 2011-13, they created a program called Bridge that offered former employees seed money to create startups, and even the possibility to negotiate for a spin-off license of IP assets created at Nokia:

https://www.google.fi/amp/www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/i...

It seems that the program was a success by any measure. Nokia is still around and doing better than in a long time, after shedding the mobile phone albatross to Steve Ballmer for an inflated price.

I won't give too much details, but basically it was this:

Bigwig liked me. Guy directly under bigwig, was my theoretically boss. back then I didn't understood office politics, and kept communicating with bigwig directly, because project was his idea, and his coding style was similar to mine (when he used to code) so he understood what I was doing.

I made a genuine screwup due to mental illness (now treated), guy under bigwig fired me.

I complained to bigwig on the same day, he unfired me.

I still had screwed up though... so bigwig gives me some deadline to fix my stuff.

Some weeks later, about 3 days before deadline, bigwig had to take a business trip...

So guy under bigwig shows up, tell me to show him "now" the project, since I was counting on using all the days on the deadline, it wasn't ready, so he tells me I failed and I was fired.

I tried to argue, and find bigwig... but he didn't let me, instead he made me get escorted out of the building, I didn't even got to clean my desk (like 2 years later a co-worker that grabbed my stuff returned them to me when we went to the same event).

Of course I still tried to contact bigwig, but I just wanted to ask my stuff back. Found out that they deleted my e-mail, blocked my personal e-mail from their server, reception stonewalled me (kept giving me obvious excuses to not pass on my call to anyone), banned me from the building (that had other companies too but...) and so on.

And that is how I found out the hard way how office politics work...

Few minutes later we realised he had run "rm -rf" on the central source code repository.

Restored from backup in a couple of hours, but I'll never repeat that experiment.

And that's:

- in a developing country

- in a country not known for its excellent reputation regarding fraud, corruption, theft, etc.

- as an employee holding the "keys to the kingdom" (access to multiple production environments, admin level access to source control systems used by 90% of the company's products, etc., etc.)

I know that I wasn't fired, I resigned, so things are not quite the same, but people who were fired got the same treatment. Just leave the company stuff behind, pack your personal stuff and leave at date X.

Firings usually shortcut the twaddle and bunkum associated with that particular bureaucratic form.

I saw that in Moscow in 2008 (one big investment bank fired several guys from our team in 20-30 minutes in front of my eyes). It was very unusual. They did now allow a fired person to touch his computer after firing him.

He was the only one who didn't get called... Neither of us could stop laughing...

Which matches how most corporations see their employees

They are Human Resources, to be consumed like any other resource

Also once, as an employee not a contractor, I was laid off and while I was given time to say some farewells to colleagues I was politely asked not to attempt to log in. I had worked there long enough that I received 6 months severance pay so I had time to get another job.

FWIW, All of my career has been in the American mid-west in "employment at will" states. I've never been asked to sign a contract as an normal employee.

I've actually seen such thing in Poland for a DB admin - the guy was asked to come to his manager's office where he was told that he's fired, and other admins used that time to change all the production DB passwords.

In Latin America getting laid off means being called to HR in the morning around 10:00am and getting told "you're being let go, please clean out your desk, fill in your boss on any pending work and finish your workday"

I've only seen one person escorted out of the building in the US way and that was because he was stealing corporate info.

I don't think there's a way to make it "more human." The opposite extreme of your scenario is bringing everyone (either on site, or everyone getting laid off) into a room and break the news in one shot. I've had coworkers who have been laid off in the "put everyone in a room" way. 60 people told at the same time their position had been eliminated, leave their badge at the door on the way out. That's not any less cold. I'd argue individually telling folks is better. It lets people have an emotional reaction if they need to, and not have to worry about the other dozens of people around them.

If you need to lay off many people at once, there is no good way to do it.

UK: in larger organisations (I mean big enough to have more than say 20 employees being made redundant) there is a consultation process that lasts a month or can last up to three months depending on the number of people being made redundant. There is a process that has to be kept to and there is a statutory minimum amount of redundancy pay [1] as well as payment in lieu of notice. Redundancy payments are tax free up to a limit

The result is in my experience less secrecy (consultation period) and some sort of financial safety net, at least a few months worth.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/redundant-your-rights/redundancy-pay

As pointed out below, the consultation period is before those being made redundant are (officially) selected. In large organisations - for extra fun - you have things called 'redundancy pools' based around areas of work or grades that all share a risk of redundancy but only (e.g.) 5 out of 25 will actually be made redundant. I should also point out that larger orgs often offer voluntary redundancy at enhanced terms within given 'pools' - unions where they exist will often bargain for enhanced terms.

Not a pleasant time but does give people weeks/months to find something else and take what financial precautions they can - and perhaps decide that 'VR' (voluntary redundancy) is possibly attractive. Yes, you do lose good people sometimes.

* officially made

Not arguing against severance just saying that "well throw some money at them" doesn't necessarily make it any better.

Companies generally do not tell you 3 mos in advance you are being laid off, so if there is no severance then you are blind sided and are instantly with out income

I would much rather my layoff come 3mos sooner and have 3 months to look for a job before having no income, then been "allowed" to continue to work 3 months longer with no severance

You may not be that surprised to hear that he’s not bitter at all, and has every intention of working ‘till his last day.

Because people feel strength in numbers and don't beat themselves up that only THEY are being let go. If all those other people are being fired - including Bob over there who (50% chance) worked harder than me - then it's not my fault.

That escalated quickly, no? :)

It's the best way to destroy your career and really become unemployable, even if you don't go to jail.

When the employees came in, they were escorted by "guards" to get their stuff, and not allowed to say goodbye to anyone. That said, they were allowed in the next day as a guest with no issues.

Company's assume the worst of people so they put in all these policies and procedures instead of treating adults like adults. If the adult decided to delete something. Charge them with a crime. I would go ahead and guess that no one that was laid off in that time would have done something so brazen.

Last I had lunch with any of them, they were doing better in their new gigs. More money or freedom.

For example:

It's Friday afternoon. HR calls department manager and asks them if Bob is currently at his desk. Department manager confirms.

HR then asks department manager to ask to have a quick chat with Bob, and to notify HR immediately before that meeting starts. Department manager arranges this with Bob, who is wrapping up another meeting.

15 minutes later, department manager sends an email or IM to HR saying he/she and Bob are about to head over to the meeting room, where Bob will be fired.

HR confirms, then contacts the IT department and asks them to immediately revoke Bob's access to all critical systems. (The procedure for this will be established well in advance, and documented. Ideally a script will make this a single-click operation.)

In the meeting, Bob finds out that he is being let go at the end of the day, and told that he can spend the remainder of his time at the office saying goodbyes and maybe even writing a goodbye email to his coworkers if he chooses to do so. He is explicitly instructed to BCC his manager and HR in that email. He is also made aware, both verbally and in writing, that his access to all other systems has been revoked, and even attempting to use those systems will alert HR and result in him immediately being escorted out.

--

Of course you also need strict policies such as "employees cannot use their personal email addresses when signing up for products and services on behalf of the company." That way if you fire someone you don't lose access to critical systems. Have a shared email for each department that is used for that purpose.

Didn't Twitter do something like that recently?

Although, begrudgingly I agree that it's something that should probably be done if you know somebody is being let go.

I started looking for my next job that day. I don't want to work for a company that does that to people. Yes, layoffs happen, but 1) NO management got layed off. 2) Treating people like this during the layoff (armed guards, herding them into a room together), is just disgusting.

It might help to remember that fundamentally, modern corporations are top-down totalitarian regimes, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

When management gets together to decide how to handle the notice, the legal department weighs in and says that you have to handle all notices in the same way so you don't create any discrimination liability, and, you have to anticipate the worst case situation where the employee becomes violent.

So you wind up with security escorting the just-fired employees out of the building.

In industries where the company values the employee, this hardly happens. Of course I am excluding employees who have considerable access or reach, who can cause significant business impact, ex. financial sector.

But, whatever the company thinks of it's employees, it's a good practice to not humiliate the employee. Suing also doesn't work in India. So a service job in the IT sector is only a slight degree away from bonded labor.

If you terminate such a person without some preparation, they can go back to their desk and do mischievous things. That's the idea behind this.

Edit: ...and does not happen often.

Anyhow whatever...

From a legal point of view, it’s no different to “no shirt no service”.

(yes, even with a permit. I have a government-issued license to operate a couple of classes of motor vehicle. You're perfectly entitled to forbid me from doing so on your property.)