"Thanks for the notice, Angela. Please sit down and give me your phone."

Many organizations have a policy against diving saves.

Their rule is when an employee gives notice, the company crisply exercises its right to waive the notice and sits them down right then for a short exit interview, calls HR and security, seizes their company-issued devices (mobile, laptop, car keys, etc.), reinforces terms of confidentiality, calls the sysadmin to terminate access to all systems, boxes up their personal items, thanks them for their service, walks the employee out of the building, and starts to audit their recent work.

Supporters justify this approach on...

1. Performance. Once someone has made the choice to leave, they no longer have the mindset needed to be a great worker.

2. Risk. They've jumped from an ordinary security/confidentiality/liability profile to a very high risk one.

3. Disloyalty. Quitters betray the tribe, should be shunned for abandoning coworkers and the institution, and are non-persons.

Sometimes these policies arise from painful experience, like employees who leave backdoors, steal IP, who recruit coworkers to leave, or who sew dischord. A particularly macho esprit de corps can trigger anger about the recently departed.

All of this changes the moment when an employee tells her manager. The consequences could be cold, immediate, and dire. Or the warm affirmation of a Diving Save.