Thread regarding VMware layoffs

I believe the severance was not based on base salary, but on target earnings/total comp. So commissioned employees would be looking at that number. Has anyone heard or seen anything to the contrary?

The 2 months severance is to comply with the WARN act, it isn't out of the generosity of VMware. They are by Federal law required to give 60 day notice or pay 60 day compensation.

Will severance include a percentage of bonus?

The key thing is - is it a lumpsum severance in lieu of notice, i.e. they give you the severance, you're no longer on the payroll and then you can collect unemployment while you look for your new job

OR

is it you're let go but they keep you on payroll for 2 months so you cannot collect unemployment but if you find a job in 1 week you lose the rest of your "severance" since you started a new job plus you cannot collect any unemployment.

The second option is considerably worse.

You can literally go back in this forum and see the severance policy. It's always been the same for every layoff and there's been many here in the time I have been around.

@1qlo+1jhY45GS

Everyone

"Order Management in EMEA when all fired by Jerell got 6 weeks salary per year subject to a max of 1 years salary."

Wow!! was this for an executive level? Or for everybody? Could we expect the same in EMEA also this time?

"3-You do not become a BC employee because BC has sold your business unit to some other company (or you are a BC employee for a short period of time).

What happens in scenario 3 with regards to severance eligibility? I'm guessing potentially nothing if the new company does not want to give you any?"

Nothing. You are not fired, you are offered a new job (or not) at the purchasing company. here in the US policy doc it states:

"An otherwise eligible employee shall not be eligible for severance pay or benefits under the Plan if the Plan Administrator or the Plan Administrator’s designee determines in its sole discretion that any of the following apply:
......
The employee is identified as part of a business unit, group, or division, or works on a
product or set of products, that the Company sells or transfers (in whole or in part and
regardless of type of transaction) to a third party or to an Affiliated Entity, and the
employee declines an offer of employment from the buyer of such business unit, group,
division, or product(s) (or part thereof). "

So if your BU is sold off, you are now part of that new company, and get no severance from vmw/bcom

So when the acquisition closes I can see three scenarios:

1. You become a BC employee. Business as usual.
2. You do not become a BC employee. Laid off and subject to vmw severance package.
3. You do not become a BC employee because BC has sold your business unit to some other company (or you are a BC employee for a short period of time).

What happens in scenario 3 with regards to severance eligibility? I'm guessing potentially nothing if the new company does not want to give you any?

Order Management in EMEA when all fired by Jerell got 6 weeks salary per year subject to a max of 1 years salary.

The policies vary by Geos so al lot of the below may not apply to you.

The S4 SEC filing states that VMW benefits etc will apply for a year after acquisition

"Can anyone give an example on how much will an employee get if she is 18 months employed at the time of layoff ?

a. 2 Months base + 2 weeks base

b. 4 months base + 2 weeks base."

The 4 months base is if they notify her and tell here "you will work through out the notification period". While the 2 month base pay is if she is notified and NOT required to work the next 60 days.
Very few will be asked to stay for 4 months. Assume good bye and 2 months base.

Then, there is no pro-ration on years served. 18 mos is 1 full year and 1/2 year. You get 1 week of pay for 1 full year of service.

So in you're example, Susan is notified that she is being laid off as of today, She would get 2 mos base pay + 1 week base pay for her severance.

If Susan is notified her position is terminated but she will continue to work for some small period of time, she will get 4 mos + 1week.... (Don't count on this, they dont want unproductive people, doing nothing, waiting for their last day for 4 mos.

This is inline with what I got as severance when Sumit/Meenu axed our CXS team early last year, so I'd consider it accurate (unless Broadcom revise it post-acquisition).

Can anyone give an example on how much will an employee get if she is 18 months employed at the time of layoff ?

a. 2 Months base + 2 weeks base

b. 4 months base + 2 weeks base.

A or B ?

Outside looking in…

You can’t just ask HR what is the policy?

And after all this time the fact that someone has found the “smoking severance g-n” just goes to show that no one at VMware is being remotely transparent.

This falls in into the category of “common knowledge” in principle because no one hacked into VMware systems to get this information, it is just “obscure common knowledge”

This information should have been shared more broadly within VMware.

Yes exactly, we know for sure what US severance package will be but we don't have any clue on what we can expect here in EU.

Is this AMER specific do we know?

Here is the info about capping based on years of service: 12 week severance cap

For each eligible employee who has been employed for at least twelve (12) consecutive months,
the Company will pay an additional lump sum severance payment equal to one (1) week of the eligible employee’s base salary (as determined above) for each full “Year of Service” (as defined herein) through the Termination Date, without pro-ration for any partial year of service, up to a maximum of twelve (12) weeks. A “Year of Service” shall mean each period of twelve (12) consecutive months of employment
during which the eligible employee is in active status as a regularly-paid employee of the Company based upon the Company’s personnel records, starting from the earlier of (i) the employee’s date of hire at VMware or (ii) an acquired or affiliated company, solely as reflected in the Company’s personnel records
and ending on the Termination Date. In any event, the maximum weeks of additional severance an eligible employee may receive under this paragraph shall not exceed twelve (12) weeks total.

So is it capped at four months for below PE or four months then 1 week per year? I was told that it would be capped at 4 months below PE>

Thank you. This is the single most useful post here. So it's clear now that it's not two weeks of severance for each year of service. This was enough to make my decision.