7. How do I improve the terms of my severance agreement?
Recognize, at the outset, that most employers anticipate negotiating with you over the severance package. If you have been offered three months severance, the employer may be prepared to pay you five or six months. You need to ask your employer for more in a way that seems likely to result in your picking up all of the dollars that are on the table.
Improving your severance package involves correctly assessing your leverage, figuring out who to "pitch" with your request, deciding who should tell your story (you, your attorney, a sympathetic officer or director), and determining to whom the pitch should be made, and how (in person, by a letter from you, by a letter from your attorney). Don't underestimate the good that may come in negotiations from letting the employer know, at the right time, that you have sought the advice of an attorney.
Also, you need to consider what kinds of things to ask for in light of your personal circumstances and the employer's history of providing separation agreements. The list of additional items you request may range from the obvious (more severance pay) to the more creative (transferring to you ownership of the laptop computer you have been using).
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