Literally cheered as you walked out? Why would they do that?
Because I was the first one to find a real job and get out. At that time, 2002 there was a glut of tech workers following the .com bust and jobs were hard to come by. It gave people hope that there might be life after severance.
Also, it was the statement. I walked away from a lot of money by not hanging in for 2 more months. It was my way of saying screw you too to the outfit that was screwing me over and a lot of people liked that.
FWIW, the whole thing didn't work out well for The Company and they ended up severing the contract with the outsourcer after about a year and a half. Then they sort of wound down. I hear from the people they have let go since that the severance packages weren't nearly as good as what we were promised.