I need help understanding how one wouldn’t get severance after signing the agreement. I don’t have money for a lawyer to discuss. But my manager said something about confidentiality and I don’t understand. Am I not supposed to let people know I was laid off in order to get severance? Or is this more on a public forum? I would really appreciate insight.
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of course you can tell people you were laid off. what you can't do is reveal confidential company information, business plans, client lists, directories, etc. (remember the yearly privacy training?). And, it is always a good practice to minimize speaking negatively about your previous employers....who would want to hire that person? Good luck with your upcoming search...it is rough out there.
Sounds a lot like hush money, being paid off to save their name, was this part of standard layoffs or will people the companys worried about talking bad get randomly offered severance just to leave and keep their negative stories to themselves?
Were you part of a mass layoff or was this more of a private departure?
Read what your severance agreement says and only pay attention to that. Chances are your manager has no idea what he’s talking about and anything they verbally say won’t be enforced when there’s a signed agreement anyway.
Re: negotiating severance.
Don’t even bother. They don’t have to give you severance. They’re doing it to cover themselves, and it’s the right thing to do. The ONLY way you could negotiate is if you have dirt that they want to bury, which I doubt you do. I signed my agreement within a week after reviewing it and discussing with an attorney friend of mine. Just take it and move on. Enjoy it.
Realistically has anyone here successfully negotiated severance? Or should I take it and wipe my hands of Cigna?
It depends on what’s in the agreement. They could easily, and probably do, make sure you can’t say anything disparaging about the company. But no court would uphold them barring you from saying you were laid off (or better yet your position was eliminated) as you would certainly have to disclose that in order to obtain nee employment. You should be fine disclosing you’ve been laid off. Save any trash talk for verbal discussions with friends and family or anonymous forums.
I was let go and was told confidentiality is a must and that any disparaging comments against peers or the company will result in loss of severance. Does that mean I can’t tell other people I was laid off at all or is this just in a public setting I can’t do that? I already told a coworker who told me nobody even knew so I want to be sure I’m not doing this wrong. Nobody was even aware I was laid off.
You’ve cone to the right place, but this is confusing.
Start from the beginning and tell us what happened in chronological order.