Severance Agreements

5 Severance Agreement Dos and Don’ts

1. Do not wait. Typically, a terminated employee receives a short period of time to review and sign a severance agreement. Waiting until the last minute or even the last few days before a severance agreement deadline can negatively impact your severance negotiation case. You could miss the deadline and then the severance package offer may be taken away from you. Waiting until the last few days can also put you at a disadvantage by forcing your attorney to negotiate under the gun with very little time. The more time you have, the better, for your NYC or Long Island severance attorney to carefully review your severance agreement with you and begin the process of reaching out to your employer for negotiations.
   

2. Hire an experienced attorney with years of experience in severance agreement review and negotiation. Severance agreement review and negotiation requires an extensive degree of employment law knowledge and experience. And not all employment lawyers specialize in severance agreement negotiations. So, make sure you hire a New York City or Long Island employment attorney with a great deal of severance package negotiation experience.
   

3. Keep your cool. Getting terminated or laid off is a very emotional experience, but lashing out or getting angry at your employer will likely make it more difficult for your New York City or Long Island severance agreement attorney to negotiate a higher severance package for you. In my experience, the more sympathetic your employer is towards you, the better the chances an attorney has of getting you a higher severance package.
   

4. Do not make adverse admissions. Admitting or saying something bad about your job performance to your former employer can significantly weaken your attorney’s negotiating position or worse. In my experience, it is advantageous for a severance package attorney to convey to your former employer that your job performance was good or great, and that your termination was unfair. It is however important that you fully disclose all relevant information to your lawyer.
   

5. Do not negotiate directly with your employer. Severance agreements and negotiations are complicated legal matters, that should be handled by an experienced attorney in my opinion. Before and after timely hiring an attorney, it is typically best in my opinion that you no longer discuss severance negotiation matters directly with your former employer. Handling severance agreement negotiations on your own without the assistance of an experienced attorney could be a recipe for disaster.