In one of the threads here, someone mentioned negotiating severance. Has anyone had experience trying this at Medtronic? If so, what terms did you negotiate on, what leverage did you have, and how successful was the attempt?
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Severance isn’t given out of the goodwill, it’s traded to you in return for your signature on a number of agreements.
One of such agreements is the ‘Right to Sue Waiver’ or ‘Non-Litigation’ agreement. Which states that in exchange for your severance you waive your right to bring them to court. The company is giving an amount of money that they have determined to be less expensive than defending themselves (or settling) your lawsuit. It also puts a good spin on the ‘survivors’ attitude towards the company. Would you rather work for a company that treated your former coworkers ‘right’ or that all your former coworkers brought to court for wrongful termination.
By the way, these waivers are generally unenforceable if the company terminates in violation of federally protected classes (age, gender, race, religion, se-ual orientation). So you can accept severance and sign away your rights to sue, but still be involved in legal action if the termination was based on a protected class.
Now, if you are taking your career/legal advice from this site. Stop doing that.
I was at another company (not MDT) that would automatically offer $15k settlements to any employment related lawsuits regardless of validity. However, the trade off, was in a background check for your future employment the answer to the question ‘is this employee eligible for re-hire’ was ‘we cannot comment due to a legal settlement given to the employee’. Which basically said ‘this a-hole sued us’. Your mileage may vary.
I can see maybe extending end date, say you make "Widget A and need to train a replacement" but if your chosen your gone ...
Those chosen for lay-off and those who CAN be easily replaced. So, no negotiating to finish such-and-such and train so-and-so.
I can see maybe extending end date, say you make "Widget A and need to train a replacement" but if your chosen your gone ...
might be worth it to try and negotiate out of the non compete
"Negotiating" severance? Sure. Sign here, or don't. That's all the negotiation you get to have.
Unfortunately, you can’t negotiate severance. HR and leadership are creating the list carefully to avoid lawsuits. From there, those affected will be notified and told what their package is.
It's hard to imagine you have any leverage in a RIF. Execs are the only elite group to get fired and paid a bonus for walking away. They have contracts in place for that kind of thing. We don't.