Author Archives: Stan

4 Things Employers Should Know When Negotiating Severance

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Layoffs are never an easy thing to navigate, both for employees and employers. Huge companies like Microsoft and Google have cut off thousands of employees in the last year. And this is an important diversity topic since layoffs disproportionately impact racial minorities, women and people with disabilities. See article I am quoted in “Tech layoffs disproportionately affect marginalized communities.”

In uncertain economic times, businesses are trying to cut back on spending, while professionals across industries find it more difficult to get good jobs. In the event of a layoff, employers can offer severance pay or severance packages to terminated employees. It’s not a legal requirement to do so, but it can make the separation amicable. These packages usually include a continuation of pay for a period of time after the employee leaves the company, but staff can negotiate for more inclusions, such as the continuation of insurance or health benefits and assistance in finding a new job.

Consistency and communication are key for offboarding.  Your company may already have a set of practices for onboarding employees, but you may have been overlooking your offboarding procedures, which is when employees are transitioned out of the organization. Forbes’ insights into offboarding highlight that this process protects staff and company data and mitigates the risk of wrongful termination lawsuits by properly closing contracts. When coming up with offboarding plans, it is best to plan for severance negotiations. You can set a standard for severance packages for all employees or assess it based on their time spent at the company, their position, and their level of seniority—what is essential is communicating these details to your staff. Properly informing employees that they’ll receive a severance package in your off-boarding plan can minimize legal action and damage your reputation.

Outplacement services can be a benefit in severance packages. Finding a job isn’t easy after a layoff, and regular severance packages or funds don’t provide long-term aid or stability. With a career shift, most professionals and managers would want support for their future roles via connections to opportunities they may not be able to reach independently. However, LHH approaches outplacement with more than just a hand in the job search. Personal career coaching allows outplacement to be individualized and optimized for today’s digital hiring and recruiting methods. This can reduce placement times significantly, and employees can have access to unpublished opportunities globally. Outplacement services can also include helping departing employees transition into a new job through guidance on finding job listings, preparing for interviews, improving their resumes, and more.


Candidates might negotiate severance packages upfront. Even before the initial job offer has been made, some candidates might already start negotiating severance, pay, and benefits. Millennials and Generation Z workers spend less time at their jobs than older generations. A survey from CareerBuilder found that the average length of their stay is two years, nine months, and two years, three months, respectively. It would make sense why they would want to know your company’s severance package before taking the job, and how your answer can impact their chances of accepting the role. Answering honestly is the best response, and you can also assure them that they can further negotiate after accepting the role if that is in your policy.

Millennials and Gen Z-ers are particularly interested in understanding severance packages.

Both parties must be in agreement. Concern for the company’s reputation is a big consideration when negotiating severance, but that does not mean you have to agree with all of the terms and requests of your employee. You might be worried that a ‘no’ could give them a negative perception of the business, but careful discernment and justification for your rejection can open up more room for discussion. Consider also their situation outside of work and how the severance package can be adjusted to provide proper help while being fair and feasible. Knowing your employee well can help bring the negotiation to a mutual agreement and make the split amicable.

If you found this article informative, perhaps our piece titled “Looking for Staff in All the Wrong Places – The Value of Mature Workers. Five Misconceptions” might also be of interest.

School Days with Ron DeSantis – An Editorial Sarcasm

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Photo Courtesy of AP

With the new school year starting up across the country, what are some typical classroom and school discussions we’d see under the leadership of current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis?

Let’s start with 6th GRADE US HISTORY

Teacher: When the American Colonies got started, Black people came to America from Africa came to find a better life. They believed they could gain some valuable skills by working as slaves for the Southern Plantation owners. Despite that, some Americans believed that these Black slaves should be freed.
Student: So who is Dr. Martin Luther King and what is the Civil Rights movement all about?
Teacher: That one is quite puzzling. Black people really had it good, especially in the South with the Jim Crow laws of the first half of the 20th century. Black children got to attend their own schools so they could learn better with their own kind. And you know those long lines women often face a events like concerts? Black women and men did not have to wait in those lines; they had their own special bathrooms, and they had their own water fountains, and they had their own special entrance in the back of restaurants where they often ate in the kitchen area and could watch the food being cooked.
Student: Cool!
Teacher: And Black people got the best seats in the movie theater; they got to sit in the second balcony. I guess Dr. King felt that Black people should not be treated special, but should be treated equally as everyone else.
Student: Gosh, if I were a Black person, I wouldn’t want Dr. King to take away all these special rights.
Teacher: You got it. And tomorrow we will talk about the excellent facilities we housed Japanese-Americans in to keep them safe during World War II, and next week we will learn about how settlers came over from Europe to bring the savage natives that were living here a better life.

Then we move to a DISCUSSION IN A FIRST GRADE CLASSROOM

Student: Jimmy just shared with me that he has two mommies instead of a mommy and daddy. How can that happen?
Teacher: We are not allowed to talk about this.
Student: But can two women fall in love and get married like my mommy and daddy?
Teacher: Please be quiet, we are not allowed to discuss this.
Student: But why not?
Teacher: Because our government said so.
Student: But why?
Teacher: I guess it is because people like Jimmy’s mommies are bad, abnormal people and we should not be talking about them.
Student: I am glad I have a good mommy and daddy instead of two bad mommies.

In many states, parents will be unable to provide their trans children with necessary healthcare.

And finally to a JUNIOR HIGH LUNCH ROOM DISCUSSION:

Teen 1: Guess what? I used to have a sister, but now he’s my brother. Angela shared with my parents that he always felt like he was a boy inside and wants to be treated like a boy, so now his name is Andrew.
Teen 2: That’s cool that he gets to be who he feels he is.
Teen 1: Yea, my parents have been working with a physician and a psychologist, and he is taking hormones which make him feel even more like a boy. But we may need to move to another state since the state government is making this illegal.
Teen 2: What? How? I thought they passed a parent’s bill of rights stating that parents have the right to guide their children’s lives; to know what books they are reading in school and stuff. Why doesn’t this apply here? Shouldn’t parents have the right to help their kids with their gender?
Teen 1: I don’t think it works that way. I think this parents bill of rights crap only applies to parents who agree with these politicians.
Teen 2: Damn! I can’t wait until I am old enough to vote.