My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California and New York
I'm currently employed at Company A, but about to start at company B:
Company A: large privately held tech company. Company is being restructured - we closed our offices in this state & transitioned everyone to work-from-home. My program was eliminated in this process, and I was informed last week that I'm going to be laid off within 4-6 weeks, but they are unsure the exact date. Layoffs will be part of a larger wave, and they're asking me to just "sit tight & be quiet" and essentially do nothing for 4-6 weeks until HR is ready to do a bunch of layoffs & severance packages at once, and the internal comms team is ready to explain why/how the layoffs are happening to the whole company. Company is explicitly aware that I'm not doing anything at all day-to-day, and am just collecting a paycheck until they're ready to announce layoffs publicaly; they are fine with this. Severance package won't be a windfall by any means, but it'll be a few thousand dollars.
Company B: large public tech company, where I'm about to start. Taking this job involved a costly cross-country relocation to a much more expensive city, and their relocation bonus didn't even cover 30% of the expenses. So getting a boost from my old job's continued paycheck and small severace package would be a HUGE help here.
Companies A & B are not competitors and have no IP conflict between them.
Question: Can I stay employed by Company A for a short period, knowing I have literally nothing to do but sit and collect a paycheck, while also starting at Company B. The two jobs will overlap for roughly 6 weeks. Is this a risky move, or probably ok? Could Company B fire me for this if they were to find out?

