“They treated me like a common criminal”, said the employee after being escorted from the building after being let go from his employer of 12 years.” “It’s hard to recover from watching terminated co-workers escorted to the door”, stated another employee of a company involved in laying off employees in the midst of downsizing.  So why does it happen this way?  Why do companies resort to such protective actions?  It is not so much of a fear of a violent response, but more as, it is protection of proprietary information and the brand.  Policies are created to prevent a just terminated employee from walking out with client lists, memos, or other proprietary information; some of which may or could be used against the company.  To guard against the theft of information, sabotage, or disgruntled or even violent behavior, their departure is closely supervised. 

So, are the actions justified?  Are the elements of trust, goodwill, and morale that could be jeopardized worth it when workplace policies are designed to address worst-case scenarios of theft or bad reactions?  A recent study by Symantec indicates that such concerns and preventative actions may be warranted.  The report indicated that 59% of employees who quit or were terminated admitted to taking company information.  They admitted to downloading information on CD’s, flash drives or emailing to their personal accounts.  The same study stated that when layoffs were announced in advance, workers admitted to siphoning off proprietary information long before departure day.  67% stated they took confidential data not necessarily to cause harm to the company, but to help them find a new position.

As a Loss Prevention professional charged with protecting the company’s product, assets and brand image, employee terminations have been a significant and emotional part of the job.  Training and proper preparations in being sensitive and humane are keys to maintaining the best environment possible during these episodes.  The employees’ reactions to suddenly losing their job are varied.  Some are angry, others are saddened or embarrassed, most are shocked.

Now with empirical data to support the HR/Security policies of escorting terminated employees out of the building and immediately deleting their passwords and codes will be supported.  The debate on the validity of the process will rage on, however, as the image of the departing employee carrying out their cardboard boxes of their business life will be etched in the minds of those that remain - because one day, it could be them.