I wonder if anyone has experience negotiating severance pay or has considered that possibility? Friends from some other companies had this opportunity and some (with a lot of effort) managed to get a better pay. I am currently thinking whether it is worth waiting for severance here at all. However, I believe that I will not wait much longer, because the atmosphere is threatening and I can certainly say that in my many years of work it has never been worse.
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I didn't negotiate mine. But this was in the old days of generous payouts. I got a sweet deal.
If you quit, you don't get severance, and you almost certainly don't get to negotiate an exit buyout.
I can only speak to Enbridge Mainline. I don't have experience in this area in gas distribution. Everybody I know who received an offer and took it to a lawyer said the same thing. "It's a good, reasonable offer."
This backs up my experience. The lawyer I spoke to contacted me in 15 minutes and said, "Not going to charge you for this. The offer is fine. If you challenged it in court, you wouldn't get it improved, and you would be paying fees in the process."
Enbridge is risk averse. They do not want to be in court so they typically pay better than industry average. If you take a volunteer termination package they sweeten the offer a little more. If you don't and then you end up with a non-volunteer exit, it will be a bit less lucrative.
Either way, remember - there is no hard and fast rule on what "severance" should legally be. There is a minimum set by law that maxes out at 8 weeks for 10 years or more of service. That is far below the Enbridge usual offer.
I should have hired a lawyer to negotiate my severance package. I would encourage it.