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this video is all about sufferings in this video I'm going to explain how to increase your leverage so that you can negotiate for more money at the end of the video I'll give you six bargaining chips that are absolute goal [Music] first let's cover some basics what in the heck is a severance agreement it's very simple it's a contract a contract in which you are giving up your right to sue the company in exchange for money that's it the whole point of severance agreements from the employers perspective is to buy peace of mind by certainty when they slide that cheque across the table and you sign that severance agreement you cannot sue them for the most part unless that's a terribly written severance agreement which is extremely rare these are very standardized and very formulaic and very enforceable for the most part so once you sign that severance a deal you're pretty much out of luck forever pursuing legal action against that company for what happened in the past so with that said let's talk a little bit more severance is not a right just because the company has given severance to another person doesn't mean they're obligated to give it to you just because they gave Joe who worked there for 30 years a 100,000 dollar severance deal doesn't mean they have to give Mary who worked there for 40 years more or any there's no legal requirement they do that it really all comes down to a bargain for exchange how much legal risk does the company see in that employee suing them how much are they willing to pay to buy peace of mind that's what it's all about some companies have a informal policy or even a formalized policy in the employee handbook that says if you've been at the company for a certain amount of time we'll give you a certain amount of weeks of severance now generally those are not bargained for contracts there are more policies that are not enforceable as contracts so again the company might choose not to follow its own policy when applying severance to you frustrating I know more companies nowadays anyway have kind of a cya approach to severance agreements cover York they're trying to protect themselves when they view a problematic employee as somebody who might sue them they'll fire that employee they'll offer them severance but when they fire somebody who's not a problematic employee just somebody who's not producing as well as they should is a nice guy they might not offer that person a severance deal well you might think maybe I should just be a jerk at work so they'd offer me a severance when they fire me no don't do that be a good employee and they'll be less likely to fire you in the first place but that's besides the point okay once you get to the level that you've been fired what should you do to increase your leverage you automatically threaten hiring a lawyer well know first things first the circumstances around your termination focus on that are they suspect are your spidey senses tingling that the company has somehow violated the law do you feel like they've acted very strangely towards you in comparison to other employees who have been fired are you of a different demographic or a different class or a different type of employee that is unusual and they're treating you very differently if your spidey senses are tingling over your termination it's very smart for you to first contact an employment lawyer have a consultation tell them the basics of your fact pattern and then hear what the lawyer has to say if the lawyer says oh you might have a very good case then you might have a very good ability to increase your leverage and negotiate for more money or you could hire that lawyer to negotiate for more money on the other hand if you contact a lawyer and that lawyer says look you don't have a case at all I don't think you should pursue that whatsoever well maybe you aren't going to have much legal leverage to bargain for more money in the first place but with that said there are ways to increase leverage aside from the legal landscape yes you can threaten hiring a weird generally doesn't work you generally don't want to threaten a company especially because they're much bigger than you and especially because they have lawyers at their disposal unless you actually back it up so if you talk to a lawyer and they actually say you have something here you're going to be more likely to negotiate from and threatened that you have a lawyer and be able to back it up but aside from threatening the lawyer or actually having good legal grounds how can you increase your leverage well practical approach a sympathetic approach the company's firing you you now don't have a job and if you have children or spouse who depends on you or parents who depend on you or whatever whatever your circumstance is if you're comfortable and you feel like you can get progress with it go at them from the sympathetic angle you're really putting me in a tough spot I don't know how I'm going to feed my kids look if you do this I'm going to be homeless you can always try those angles if appropriate if you think it'll work unfortunately it only works sometimes I've helped people go that route and gotten them a lot of money I've watched lots of people try to go that route and fail miserably it just depends on the situation so by and large the basics are you giving up your right to sue them in exchange for money so you want to figure out what your legal grounds are and you especially want to figure out what your bargaining chips are before you start the negotiation process now that you understand the backdrop of why severance agreements exist let's look at some of the basic components of a severance agreement what's in the actually written agreement first and foremost one of the first big paragraphs is usually the release that's the paragraph where you are basically the paragraph that you sign that says I'm going to give up my right to sue them for X Y & Z generally there's all sorts of discrimination terms harassment terms wrongful termination whistleblower terms wage terms where you can't pursue them to those types of claims and then there's always a broad claim with the innocence or any other legal issue that you might have had during your employment at this company that release should either before or shortly thereafter follow with the paragraph that says in exchange for that release you're going to get paid a certain amount of money and make sure the exact amount is in that severance agreement now what the HR representative or the lawyer or the CEO says of what in the agreement is what matters so pay very close to pitch also pay very close attention to the terms monthly or is it all in one lump sum you got to make sure you figure all that out another big thing that you absolutely have to pay attention to in severance agreement are the deadlines typically when a severance agreement is presented to an employee they say you only have ten days or two weeks or twenty-one days in which to evaluate this and get-and either sign it or send it back to us otherwise the agreement is void and that you can't if you sign it after that deadline they don't have to honor it so it's very important that you figure out what those deadlines are before you start thinking about negotiating because you need to know what your time frame is third there's almost always a non-disparagement clause in that severance agreement or you can't go out and bash the company online you can't do this you can't do that paying close attention to that a lot of employees who are being fired are disgruntled and they want to call their co-workers who are still working there and be like can you believe this BS ba bla bla bla you don't want to do that if you sign a severance agreement because it might void the agreement they might sue you and then try to get all that me back so be very careful to pay close attention to eat the exact words in the disparagement clause for employees over the age of 40 there's an age discrimination and Employment Act provision typically in these severance agreements that say if you're over the age of 40 there's 7 days in which you have to consider the severance agreement even after you sign it in which you can rescind that agreement following the protocol set up in the agreement and then you have 21 days to consider it even before you sign it they have to give you that long it's kind of a quirky lot but it's there so if you're over the age of 40 and that provision is missing contact a lawyer it's important in most California agreements I'm a California employment lawyer in most California agreements there's a provision about the Civil Code section 1542 which basically says you're giving up your right to any lawsuit against the company that you know about and any lawsuit that you don't even know about that you might have against the company pretty standard in most severance agreements so I wouldn't worry too much about it then there's also an almost all severance agreements a whole bunch of lawyer gibberish integration clause is all sorts of stuff that won't make a whole lot of sense but if you focus on the release the amount of money the deadlines and some of this other stuff the rest of it should fall into place but if you have any questions and you feel like anything is strange in there contact an employment lawyer I can't emphasize that enough first and foremost it seems obvious but a lot of people are terrified to do it you're never going to get more money unless you ask for more money and you shouldn't ask for the amount that you want you should ask for more than the amount that you want if they come at you with a two-week severance package and you want three months of sovereigns you shouldn't ask for three months because they'll never give it to you if you ask for three months they'll give you four weeks so you come at them with I need six months of sevens minimum and they'll come at and so you guys will negotiate this way until you meet in the middle so that's pretty obvious negotiations 101 but a lot of people are first of all scared to ask for more and secondly they asked for the number that they want not more than the number that they want but what is also really important to know about this and you should be very careful about how much you ask for is that there is a small risk that if you come at them with a number too high or if you try to negotiate with them at all that they'll rescind the current offer that's on the table so if they've offered you two weeks and you come at them and say I need three years of severance give it to me now they might just go wow we're not going to even offer you two weeks now because you're acting a reasonable so be careful with how aggressively you approach it if you're at all concerned that the employer might do that contact a lawyer the next really important thing next bargaining chip I often talk about is delaying the termination date let's be real it's a lot easier to get a job if you already have a job and the only way to look at an employer in the interview and say with a straight face that I'm still employed is if you're still employed so get it in writing that they'll delay the termination date three months six months or whatever because it's very helpful for you to say that I'm still employed now with that said you should also very much think and using that as a bargaining chip if they refuse to do that say okay if you don't want to do that pay me an additional two weeks or six weeks or two months of severance whatever way you can increase your leverage by asking for something making them uncomfortable and then turn it around - okay fine just give me an additional two weeks furthermore I pay very close attention to the payment terms most companies will come at you and say ok we'll pay you four weeks of severance and we'll pay you during the typical payroll period over the next two get two payments say no I'm not okay with that please give it to me the lump sum the moment I sign this well they might not like that they might have cashflow issues say okay if you can't pay it to me in a lump sum as opposed to paying me four weeks of severance pay me six weeks of severance they might be more agreeable to do something like that as opposed to a lump sum also another way to increase the value of your severance agreement very thoughtful if you have health benefits through the through the company and they're terminating you and you're negotiating over severance is talk about who's paying for your health benefits try to get the company to pay for an additional three months six months or whatever through the company system and that that can go hand in hand with them delaying your termination date but also super important if they're not willing to do that to pay the health benefits through the company then ask them to increase your total severance package so that you can pay for your Cobra payments so that you and your family are not uninsured just because you were fine fifth unemployed most people when they get fired they file for unemployment and you can ask for in the severance agreement in writing that the company not contest your unemployment claim very common for companies to do that without question six and finally and this is super important you can ask for a good job reference it's really simple it doesn't cost them anything they're almost always willing to give you a job reference if you ask for it unless you've been a typist at the company so be a good employee and when they do fire you then ask for a job reference the delay your sever for separation date and give you lots of money and they'll be more likely to do it well anyway I hope you found this video helpful take care [Music] you