Why asked to leave early after given notice?
Not sure if this is HR or not. 2 non software roles... If an employee gives notice and is working their two weeks then abruptly told the morning of that day 8 will be their last day. Another employee gives 2 weeks notice and told that day was their last. Neither had performance issues but some tension with management and a bit of a reorg happening, why would the company do that?
Sometimes if they get to know you are going to a competitor company, they ask you to leave immediately.
Not the case here
Then they might fear you would poach other employees. Or the management wanted you to stay but could not change your mind, they get pissed off and ask to leave sooner
Could have to do with stock vesting or bonus payout. Or if it’s close to the end of the month, they want to avoid paying another month for insurance.
I was asked to leave earlier than my 2 weeks because my manager said he didn't want me to get my annual bonus. This was at Intel.
Check if they are getting fired. They may be eligible for a severance
Not getting fired
Some companies try to save every penny or running tight on budget. As somebody rightly said, they may also be worried about poaching and/or sharing trade secrets
Expect to get walked out once you give notice. Normally, if you're walked out- it's 2 weeks paid for nothing!! The odd part is if the company tries to move UP your last day. That is weird, since what reason do they have to not pay you for the final 2 weeks? Sure, it's at will employment, but most companies have a process to document of they want to kick you out. If they move up your date, that's kind of firing you! It's normally a hassle to bother with NOT paying you the last 2 weeks when you aren't even there, so most companies just let it go. So don't agree to a moved up date if they ask. Put to onus on them to terminate you earlier!
They were both paid. Given all the reasons in this thread, it sounds like for this specific situation a petty dotted line manager wanted the employees gone. Didn’t save the company any money.
They don't trust that person or if they are going to a competitor it is usually automatic.
This is not uncommon. Sometimes managers just don’t want the distraction. As long as they pay you for the notice period, then it’s all good. If you’ve wrapped up your work, no reason to keep you on site as a potential distraction and shouldn’t be any hard feelings (as long as you’re paid).
There could be any number of reasons. If there is nothing left to hand off, why keep the employee around? They want to free up the headcount now for other roles. Save on bonus or health insurance costs. Etc.
So you don’t poach coworkers
Why was that decided part way through the notice period?