Probably the shittiest part of my job :(

man you guys need unions
here it's minimum two months notice by law, usually three by contract, increasing by one month per every five years. and you can basically only get fired for actively sabotaging business, doing illegal shit, or if there legitimately is nothing for you to do. and they still have to pay you for the entire time. like, i worked at a company that went bankrupt and after the estate or whatever it's called ran out of cash, the state paid out the final month.
flipside: it goes the other way too.
- Have you no love for the shareholders who have invested their ill-gotten gains in these enterprises?!
  Have you no decency?!
  
  i am a shareholder. buying shares is only open to people working in the company. you have to sell them back when you leave.
- Other way meaning you have to give 2+ month notice to quit?
  
  yes. except for the first few months (usually the first half-a-year) when both parties can terminate the employment within one month.

I worked on a 6 month project. At month 5, they said they are not renewing even tho they need the position.
My team fought the VP and said if I don't continue it would be detrimental to the project.
She renews me for another 6 months and makes me fly to an off-site to present at an mbr.
The VP proceeds to cancel my contract the day I land in San Francisco. Because she doesn't want a remote worker anymore and wants this person to come in 4 days a week.
Corporate doesn't care about you. You need to be selfish because nobody will care about you otherwise.
- I'm sorry you dealt with that, an I'm very familiar with it. You're absolutely right, to management you are nothing more than a drone. It doesn't matter how important you are to the company, what level you are, once they have decided you're out it's over. There is no amount of fighting, rallying, or anything you can do. They will find a way to oust you.
  Same applies if you're in an HR thing, a legal thing, just got on someone's bad side. Even if you win, they'll just fabricate a reason to get rid of you with just enough data to justify it in court. As soon as you catch wind, start looking for your next place
  
  I have been jaded enough that I'm sort of numb to it now. I'm only working towards my retirement. Office gossip, dynamics, culture means nothing to me. 90% of my job is optics. The rest is real work. My only job is to try and keep my job as long as possible and nothing more.

Well, my colleagues all knew in the day I was laid off in the morning before me. I only knew about it after it being announced in the afternoon because it was a day off for me. It was fun. People coming to say goodbye and me having no idea what they were talking.
- Sounds shitty. Why do companies do that?
  
  Let them go on Friday so they have the weekend to cool off. Minimises problematic post employment events.

I remember being the server guy who had to stay late on Fridays and remove access at 6pm.
I got a panicked call from someone who couldn't save the file he was working on. It was for a project set to go live on Tuesday.
I had to break it to him that he was just let go.
- That fucking sucks, for both you and him.
  Who doesn’t even bother to tell someone that?
  
  In many companies access is removed before they're notified so vengeful employees can't go in and fuck things up right after being terminated.
- Man I've been there too. You do exactly what HR asks you to, when they ask you to do it and all of a sudden it's "oh whoops that's actually supposed to be next week)
  Or like the meme says, it sucks when you get an email telling you to term someone at the end of the week and you have to interact with them all week.
  
  My brother was on the list of names once.
  I was not allowed to tell him, but HR let me take off that day and had someone else do it.

Anyone else dislike the phrase "let go" in this context? It sounds like you're doing them a favor, or they were being held hostage, or giving them permission to do something. I'd prefer "fired" or "terminated", even though those have their own connotation problems.
Meme's relatable, though. This capitalist hellscape is awful.
- The phrase "let go" is definitely PR speak. It makes it sound less aggressive than "fired" or "terminated".
  I have heard arguments that "fired" has the implication that the employee is at fault and did something bad, but the argument is weak.
  
  I have heard arguments that "fired" has the implication that the employee is at fault
  Generally that's not an implication, it is the outright meaning. America is weird on that because you guys can be fired without cause; in the civilized world you're either fired (at fault), laid off (no work for you to do), or terminated with severance pay (because you're not at fault, but it also isn't a layoff).
  
  True. Saying you got fired sounds like you fucked up. Maybe "dismissed" is more neutral without being totally PR Speak?
- I used to think that there was a big difference between being "let go" and being "fired", in terms of what actually happens.
  
  If you're in a country with good worker protection, there's a big difference between 'made redundant' and 'fired for cause'. There is no 'fired for no reason'.

IT also often shares the burden of knowledge...
- One of the reasons I'll never work corporate again. I wasn't paid enough to tell people they need to go to HR when their account has been locked. My job was supposed to be computers, not front line damage control for underhanded employment practices.
  Second reason is Unions didn't fucking exist for IT and everyone hated me for raising awareness.

I remembered a worse time (than being the one who kills access):
One of my vendors had won the contract that my company currently held with an automaker. It was told to me in confidence, as they thought it was going to be announced later that month. I was also told because they were looking to hire me to keep all the day-to-day knowledge.
It was finally announced... EIGHT. MONTHS. LATER.
While I never said anything (it could have tucked a major deal and got myself and a few others in legal hot water), I was always quick to counsel my underlings to move to other positions or get jobs somewhere else.

I once had HR and my boss tell me to disable a user's account at 8am because they were going to fire this woman. 8:30 rolls around and she shows up, super upset she can't sign into anything. I tell her I'll see what I can find, thinking that will delay the inevitable.
Nope. Her team lead took another two hours before he could be bothered to get to her. When I asked everyone what I should say to the increasingly stressed woman, I was told I should lie and say that there's a domain controller issue.
They finally got around to firing her and she gave me the worst look on her way out the door. She definitely had it coming for some of the stuff she did, like stealing an entire Thanksgiving turkey meant to share with the whole company. But that is probably the worst moment I've had in my IT career so far.
Now if someone tells me to pull a stunt like that I just say no. They need to figure out their plan instead of forcing IT to lie.
- You were asked to be a total asshole and you complied.
  
  In the company's defense, stealing an entire turkey is Lex Luthor levels of villainy.
  
  I think it's also worth bearing in mind that he was told to by his bosses as part of his job. I understand it would be nice to let her know, but risking your employment (and therefore your income, home, healthcare, etc.), is a bad idea. Unfortunately I think OP was caught behind a rock and a hard place. The blame here falls on management, as it usually does, not on OP.
  
  Yep. Everyone has learning moments where they're an asshole at some point though. At the time I was concerned about keeping my job. I think the part that matters is if you reflect and learn from the situation.

All Middle Managers Are Bastards
- I wouldn't go that far, but it's probably most. I've had a few middle managers that were good, less than 5 though.

You should automate it so when the HR system fires someone the AD or Entra accounts are disabled and licenses are removed.
But yea, it is the shit part.
- Oh it is, but I still get notified ahead of time jic, especially since we're (mostly) remote, so there's no security approaching their desk if the network glitches and misses locking them out of Windows or some shit lol
- Sure, but those don’t trigger until the term becomes effective.

I couldn't do it. I'd have shot him a text from my personal phone. The fact that I couldn't do that is probably why I've never even thought of trying to apply for a job like that.

If you were a bro you would tell them
- Risk their own job to do nothing to save the other person's job?
  
  Depends, if they're in the process of buying a new car or house, I'd STRONGLY advise against it. Then refuse as conspicuously as possible to tell them how I know they shouldn't.
  
  If everyone stopped simping for the c-suite, it would be a lot harder for them to be shitty to people.
- That would just mean two people were getting fired that day.