Description
• Severance 1 – Request for More Time to Review and/or Sign Severance Agreement
Most severance agreements give employees 21 days to review, sign and return it to the employer. Some severance agreements provide 45 days, some only 10 days. It is very common that employees need more time to consider how to respond. This Model Memo shows you how best to request more time.
• Severance 2 – Requesting Additional Severance
Don’t believe you have been offered sufficient severance, considering your circumstances and service to your employer? That would not be surprising, because over time employers have reduced the amount of severance they offer. This model memo is the kind of memo we suggest all of our clients use in order to request additional severance. Recently Updated!!
• Severance 3 – Requesting “Departure Statement”/Reference Letter
After termination comes the new job search. Each of your interviewers may ask you the reason for your departure. Having a Reference Letter, or “Departure Statement” (which provides a positive ‘spin’ on your departure) can only help you land that job. Being able to provide such a letter to potential employers will give you both an advantage, and additional confidence, as well. Though most employers have policies against providing reference letters, in the severance process you can negotiate for one. Use this memo to do just that.
• Severance 4 – Proactive, Pre-Termination Request for a Severance Package
There are circumstances in which – even though you have not been fired, downsized or laid off – you can ASK to leave and still receive a severance package. It is a matter of having a good reason to suggest such an arrangement, connecting it to your departure, and asking in the right way. This Model Memo serves as a model to make such a request.
• Severance 5 – Master 94-Point Severance Negotiation Checklist
Being “severed” from your employment requires that you attend to many different decisions and details during a time of high anxiety. Our 94-Point Master Checklist for Severance provides you a “roadmap” for getting done what needs to get done, including points to negotiate, with minimal confusion, anxieties and worries.
• Severance 6 – Model Memo to Employer Requesting “Survivor Demotion” instead of Layoff
Quite often, employees receive notice – sometimes formal, sometimes informal – of a likely or impending layoff. For some employees – especially those approaching retirement or vesting, or in particularly job-scarce industries – a demotion may be preferable to a layoff. What we call a “Survivor Demotion” has now been successfully requested by several of our clients, to their considerable benefit and happiness. If you are interested, this Model Memo shows you what to say, and how to say it.
• Severance 7 – Model Memo to Employer Requesting Vesting of Unvested Options After Termination Without Cause
Losing your job is a very painful and frightening experience. In rather rapid fashion, and often due to no fault of your own, you lose your (a) employment relation, (b) regular income, (c) valuable benefits, and (d) daily friendships. Why in the world would being fired, downsized or laid off also require losing a very valuable class of income that you earned over years of hard work, dedication and loyalty? Just makes no sense. Here is how you can “undo” the damage.
• Severance 8 – Model Letter to Severance Plan Administrator Appealing “Arbitrary and Capricious” Denial or Lower Amount of Severance Benefits
Sometimes it seems “The severance plan says “You deserve to receive severance of ‘X’ but your employer is saying “Sorry, you are only getting ‘Y,’” where Y is less than X or Y equals zero. In that situation, you have a right to appeal such an “Arbitrary and Capricious” decision. This Model Letter, like all our model letters and memos, shows You “What to Say, and How to Say It.”
• Severance 10 – Model Letter After Request For Additional Severance Has Yielded No Response
Three, four, five days or more have gone by, and you still have not received a response. What should you do? This Model Letter is what we generally recommend. It is a strongly worded letter, to the same recipient as your initial request, that “reminds” your recipient that he or she may suffer negative consequences for ignoring such a letter as you’ve sent. While there are no guarantees, this second letter usually, at the very least, gets a serious response. This Model Memo shows you “What to Say, and How to Say It.”™