Posts Tagged ‘Severance’

Nine Reasons Not To Delay Your Job Hunt

Posted by • February 3rd, 2010 • 6 Comments

Who could be surprised to read in recent news that people receiving severance and unemployment benefits start their job searches later? It’s only natural that when income is flowing in, people put off the daunting and tedious job search task. Unsurprisingly, the longer unemployment benefits continue for the average person, the later the person’s job-search activities begin.

Take a look at our Nine Reasons Not to Delay Your Job Search, even if (especially if!) you’re receiving a severance check for sitting at home right now.

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Negotiating Severance Packages—A Refresher

Posted by • March 31st, 2009 • 2 Comments

Time Magazine recently wrote a great article on negotiating severance packages in today’s economy, something more and more of us are facing these days.  Glassdoor career and workplace expert Rusty Rueff is quoted in the piece on some if his negotiation tips we’ve written about in the past. 

As a refresher, here are some of the key tips from Rusty when faced with job elimination:

Always take the time to seek counsel to understand separation agreement. Your employer will likely want you to sign an agreement before they extend any severance or other separation benefits, and will offer you the time to talk to a lawyer before signing the release agreement. Take that time.
Ask for employment and salary continuation versus a lump sum severance payment. Severance usually represents the equivalent salary for a period of time, and companies often disperse this as a lump sum payment because there are accounting benefits.  However, staying on the books gives you the benefit of time to take care of other business that may require employment verification. 
Request your benefits to continue through the time of the separation package.  Regardless of whether you are successful in extending employment, you should ask that your health and dental benefits be extended ...

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Update: Laid off Microsoft Employees to Keep Extra Payouts

Posted by • February 23rd, 2009 • 1 Comment

UPDATE: Microsoft has quickly rectified the administrative glitch regarding several severance packages – The company said the laid off workers could keep the extra payouts.

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Navigating a Layoff: Tips for Negotiating Your Separation Agreement and Getting the Most from Severance (Employers Listen too!)

Posted by • February 16th, 2009 • 20 Comments

January layoff numbers are the worst we’ve seen in decades, which means many affected likely have not been through anything  like this before. If you are faced with imminent unemployment, it can be scary and confusing, but there are a few things you can do now as you have conversations with your employer that may make the transition to re-employment easier for you.  In today’s economy, it’s important to understand that you are likely to be out of work longer than you might think so whatever you can to do to try to secure some continuity and extend benefits to make the transition easier will be beneficial.  Now is also the time to think about “Re” everything; Refinance, renegotiate your lease, redo your spending budget, reduce your debt, recailibrate your expectations to make it through until your next job starts.

The pervasive job-losses, deepening recession and credit crunch we are all facing today make it harder and harder for people who are living, or expecting to live, on the severance packages being offered today. Companies tend to want to provide lump sum severance payments so they can take the full accounting charge in the current quarter and move on.  However, many ...

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Caterpillar Employees Satisfied Overall; Company Offers 2,000 Early Retirement

Posted by • February 12th, 2009 • 3 Comments

In today’s tight economy, companies are being forced to take a step back and look at their operation as a whole, and reevaluating what makes sense for them into terms of both workforce and operations.  For many, this means laying-off individuals in order to survive, for others this means finding creative ways to save money and for some its a combination of the two.

Some of the most recent news on this front comes out of Caterpillar, who offered 2,000 of their employees the option of early retirement.  While in January the company announced the layoff of more than 22,000, this most recent effort seems to be gesture of goodwill toward their current employees.  The company has been seeing sales drop significantly as with construction tapering off, the need for bulldozers, excavators and the like are in much less demand.  CEO Owens did, however, note that if Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan passes, that he’d be able to hire back some of those individuals that were previously let go.

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