[Eremotherium]

At least in Germany this goes both ways. The period can also be longer depending on your seniority. This is to give the company time to find a proper replacement for you and allow for a smoother handoff. Of course if both parties agree the grace period can be skipped or shortened.

You usually don't get stuck with duds because there's a probationary period of (max.) 6 months in the beginning in which these protections are not in place.

Also (after the probationary period) the company needs a legal reason to fire you. If they wanna fire you for incompetence oder insubordination they need to have reprimanded you at least once officially, in written form. Only after getting a 2nd reprimand for the SAME THING can they act on it. Meaning if you told the boss to go fuck themselves once and shown up drunk to work once they wouldn't have legal grounds to fire you and if they did you'd drag their ass to labour court and get some kind of compensation.

[acjacobson]

There are certain things that you can outright be fired for - such as stealing, I believe. I think that showing up drunk for work might also be one of them?

[jerven]

There are more, and they are immediate. And nearly always lead to a lawsuit, because it is only for grave errors in judgement. i.e. theft, violence, endangering co-workers, fraud, misrepresentations to the board and such. So when this is triggered it is never a clean break. Lawsuits can come from both sides as the reason for the firing is grave and the argument doesn't end when a person was kicked out.

[garmaine]

Depends. Public employees in Bavaria are allowed to have up to 2 liters of beer for lunch. Is that drunk?

[Eremotherium]

AFAIK showing up drunk isn't enough but if you fuck up (I think that's the legal term) and say you drop the production DB while drunk that you can be fired immediately.

[lqet]

> I think that showing up drunk for work might also be one of them?

Yes. Also if you just refuse to do any work.

[littlecranky67]

I don't think it goes both ways. As an employee, your maximum notice period is always 3 months - which is also the legal minimum required period for employers. Now depending on your position, your employer will probably even have longer period (i.e. if covered by a union negotioted tarif). Additionally, you can't even be fired at will - the employer always has to give a reason. "Shrinking down" due to business requirements would be a valid reason, but that would mean that the company cannot fire you and hire someone else for the same position as long as you got the formal qualification.

[Mauricebranagh]

Would not these count as gross misconduct?