When an employee is laid off, does AT&T give an option to choose between receiving severance in one major installment or in several smaller ones?
I'm mainly asking because taxes are much higher on larger sums, and unless somebody is in a real financial bind, choosing several smaller installments would be a logical choice.
Some VPs notify employees that they are in an effected group and a percent of this group will be gone in a month or two. Non-effected are safe. Once the effected employees are notified they are surplussed (or safe); the surplussed have a choice. 1) don't look within and gone in three weeks or 2) actively look for position within T for sixty days. If no position is found, your last day is day sixty. Choices on COBRA, retirement, management transition, severance, ... will be sent by during the first few weeks after surplus notice. Vacation scheduled before surplus notice but within sixty days are allowed even if not earned. Any vacation after the sixty days must be removed from schedule. Earned but unused vacation will be paid on last check. Unearned vacation taken is a bonus for surplus employees.
Most lump sum payments require 20% federal withholding and whatever state max withholding per federal tax rules. That's the rules they use for bonus payments.
I changed my deductions to max on the last day of payroll so they didn’t tax my severance
For management, the only choice was a lump sum. If surplussed near year end, there is an option to delay payment into the following year. I do not recall the cut off date. During your last 3 weeks or 60 days of employment you have the opportunity to change your withholding status to adjust the federal required rates as selected by your status. The method of claiming extra dependents to adjust taxes may not be valid under the new tax laws. There is only a standard deduction, no dependent allowances. But if there is a method to increase federal tax withheld, there should be a method to reduce tax. An option for states that pay unemployment benefits is to select no tax taken from your payment. The taxable unemployment helps offset the extra tax taken from severance.