And there's very little way you can stop them doing it, either, from a practical perspective, unless you change passwords and do the proper job as an admin to restrict their access.

You have to strictly control access to confidental and proprietary information while an employee IS working or they may have a copy at home, etc ....

perhaps there is a differentiation between a systems admin and a development engineer? the latter has had access to all sorts of restricted material and the only thing holding them to not revealing it is the legal non-disclosure agreement and *professional ethics*.

If the company does not treat its professionals as professionals, they risk both present and "walked-out" employees not feeling any ethical obligation to the employer. That is the point I am trying to make. This is different to a sys admin who doesn't typically work with intellectual property and who is more involved in infrastructure so that they could wreak havoc by reprogramming routers, disabling firewalls, etc. A development engineer, in my experience, is very unlikely to cause that sort of disturbance.

Anyway -- if the termination policy is known up front and followed equally that also helps; but too often "favourites" *are* given notice that their jobs will be ending but non-favourites, no matter what their contribution to the company, aren't.

Its not really about technically knowledge or limiting an employees access to key parts of your business. Once you have made the decision to fire someone it is best to remove them from your place of business WITH severance pay of whatever has been contractually agreed.
The damage people can do is mostly about negative attitude. Handover to a colleague of a project shouldn't need to be an issue. No one a company wants to retain should be privy to any project/information that cant be accessed from their work data files. That can be an issue if you let someone back to their PC/laptop. I have worked for companies who didnt have a company documents system and paid dearly for letting people back to their desks.

Its not a fair world and employees are pretty badly treated by unscrupulous employers. Worth bearing in mind when you are signing an employment contract.

In the US Employees are a resource...Where do you think that lovely term "Human Resources" comes from?

Im always reminded of the Dilbert cartoon whereby it turns out the employees were valued as being above staples but just below copier paper (I think it was) in the corporate mind.

US corporate mantra: Use em and abuse em.

I agree with all of the above. It has been my experience, however, that employers do NOT include any sort of provision for termination that is known to the employee before they begin work; and that termination is carried out on a wildly varying basis that is confusing and angering. Again, if a company wants to protect their assets, as you say, they will use techniques that make it difficult for employees to print/copy/save sensitive materials.

I can understand not having access to computer systems, but personal effects like one's children's pictures?! This is why I refuse to personalise my work environment. I'm under no pretense that this is in any way "my" space.

Corporations, as entities made up of multiple people, like governments, are capable of cruel actions that they'd never have the courage to inflict individually. The mentality that all is fair in business seems to work one way: the corporation can do want it wants, the worker cannot.

On the other hand until we get a non-corrupt government the likelihood of corporations becoming more fair is laughable.

Wow, that's really sad, I never thought about it like that. I remember my office fondly in England, my desk was very personal, I had photos of my family, my personal possessions, a few cut outs of Ronaldo ( ) etc. When people left, we didn't even change the codes on the doors, in fact, I could go back there right now & I'm sure it would still be the same. Then again, we never got rid of our employees on bad terms, we paid a few off, but they considered themselves lucky that they got away with so much crap while they were there, so they took the money & ran!!!

The big fear of course is the "going postal" retribution....

Of course if they had an avatar like your's Ray, then they'd definitely be worried!

....and the more bitter the termination, the more likely of inflaming someone to that point. Best to know up front what will happen upon termination, have it carried out precisely, and have everyone treated equally. And that just doesn't happen, at least not that I've seen.

The only "going postal" (truly) retribution I have even tangentially been involved in was a professor from my university who got the sack, which is difficult to do to a tenured professor. I never liked or trusted the guy and am glad I never took a course from him. Anyway, he stalked the dean of engineering and the department head (amongst others) and shot up the electrical engineering building and the above two guys' HOUSES all in one night. Luckily no one injured or killed.

A couple months ago, on the Monday everyone was told there wouldn't be any redundancies, on Wednesday, after dinner break, 25 people were tapped on the shoulder, dept manager then said all those tapped on the shoulder were to leave, possession will be forwarded and security escorted them all out the door, half way through a shift, not even a thank you and good bye.

Someone else got fired yesterday, frog marched out the door.

I work in a tech company, mainly a sales office, and the department with the most turn over is easily the sales team.

Being in an "At will" state, there is no requirment for notice in either direction. If someone in sales is not hitting their numbers, they can be walked there and then.

It works both ways though. If someone finds another job, they can hand in their notice in the morning and be walking out by lunch.

Typically, if someone quits, they get to say their goodbyes, collect their belongings, but you can be damn sure IT has locked their machines before they get back to their desk. If someone is fired, they are walked there and then, and either come in off hours to meet a manager to collect belongings, or they get shipped.

We had one sales guy get fired, as a personal favour he was allowed back to his cube to collect his stuff, he managed to get on his machine and forward a customer list to a competitor, email all his clients with his personal information and sent a big "***** you" to the directors.

Anyone who is fired is walked out now, no favours.

From 1988 to 94 I worked for Fed Ex (A US company). We were all made redundant and given 13 weeks notice with a bonus of 2,000 quid if we stayed to the last day.
Over here it's a different story. I speak to Fed Ex employees often and they are not treated as good. We had free travel if travelling alone and 90% discount on all airlines, they don't get that here.

My company lays people off at a minutes notice, I am somewhat protected in that the biggest customer we have insists that I go there or they will switch contractors.

At my first job here I handed in my nitice and was told to go imediately as I hads shown disloyalty.

That's one thing I find disgraceful. That a company will demand 100% loyalty and get angry with an employee that hands in their notice, yet let good people go with no notice and in an uncaring brutal way. One sees this kind of thing often, the company demanding loyalty and giving nothing meaningful in return.

This all depends on the state you're in, the company you work for and the industry. I've worked in management consulting, a profession that's infamous for short-notice layoffs, and seen masses of competent, hard working people get laid off in one day. I've also worked for a few large financial companies and seen tons of employees that really should have been fired kept on year after year.

In general, it is extremely easy to get laid off in the US. It pays to be vigilant and prepare for the worst at all times. It's the wonder of "at-will employment". Basically, the employer is under no obligation to keep you employed and can let you go for any reason they deem reasonable. The employee has no legal rights except if they are a "protected minority" (women, ethnic minority etc) in which case they can sue for discrimination. White men are basically up the creek if they get fired. Employees are also under no obligation to their employer and can legally leave at any time for any reason. That's come in handy once for me.

When I'm in upstate NY, it's great to go to Wegmans (yes, enjoyable going to a supermarket!), and this article helps illustrate maybe why they have such an edge. Always amazes me why more companies aren't like this towards their employees - perhaps it's the advantage of not being a listed company.