Well, usually that's part of the severance arrangement: you get to represent yourself as employed for some amount of time.
You do want people out of the office once you deliver the news, because even if you fire people fairly, they're not going to be doing useful work. Otherwise, I agree 100%.
Many companies use PIPs instead of severance offers in order to build a "performance"-based case against an employee. (This is sometimes part of a layoff being dressed up as a performance-based cut, and sometimes not.) That works out horribly. It's actually cheaper, considering morale issues, to cut a 3-month severance than to put someone on a 2-month PIP, because most people turn toxic during the "walking dead" period of the PIP. What PIPs are about is externalized costs: the HR office claims it "saved money" on severance payments, but the team and manager have to deal with a walking dead employee for 2 months.
I have never heard of severance being used to artificially extend the termination date (and I expect health insurance vendors would crack down on it), but I have never heard of termination date mattering in terms of getting the next job anyway.
You do want people out of the office once you deliver the news, because even if you fire people fairly, they're not going to be doing useful work. Otherwise, I agree 100%.
Many companies use PIPs instead of severance offers in order to build a "performance"-based case against an employee. (This is sometimes part of a layoff being dressed up as a performance-based cut, and sometimes not.) That works out horribly. It's actually cheaper, considering morale issues, to cut a 3-month severance than to put someone on a 2-month PIP, because most people turn toxic during the "walking dead" period of the PIP. What PIPs are about is externalized costs: the HR office claims it "saved money" on severance payments, but the team and manager have to deal with a walking dead employee for 2 months.