I've only been laid off one time in my life. I was working in Network Operations for an oil and gas company as a sysadmin / disaster recovery specialist. Anyway, there was some industry crisis and management announced layoffs were coming. On the day the axe fell my departmental director was calling people into his office. My turn came and I went in and when I saw the expression on his face I knew something was amiss. He was like "OK here is your severance doco." I was of course shocked because I was the hotshot in my department. So I asked, "Why? Everyone knows I am THE ass kicker on my team." And he said "Oh. Um, well we thought you `wanted` to be laid off." I was like, "Huh? Wait, no, what?" All he could say was "Sorry man". Good times !
In countries with stronger labor protections, or in unionized workplaces, when layoffs are obviously on the horizon, they're often preceded by a round of voluntary layoffs, where people are actively told to ask if the want to be layed off. There are many reasons why someone might choose severance and certainty in that situation
