MAKING SURE NOT TO LEAVE MONEY ON THE TABLE
When you come back to negotiate, it is important to keep in mind that through negotiation you may be able to improve the financial package that will tie your family over until new employment is found. Try, if possible, to negotiate with your boss who will be embarrassed, and perhaps sympathetic, to your circumstances.
Keep the following in mind:
- Learn the amount and length of your severance pay
- Ascertain, based on your knowledge of the organization, whether the severance package you have been given is as good or better than others who have been fired
- Negotiate a better severance package based on your knowledge of the package that other’s received
- Understand whether your severance will be lump sum or paid at the same intervals as salary (Note: try to get a lump sum if you think there is a reasonable probability the company may go out of business)
- Determine when your bonus will be paid for last year and whether you will receive a bonus for work completed this year (even if it is a partial year)
- Find out if all your stock vests at the time you leave
- Determine the status of your pension and determine if you are vested
- Calculate commissions that you are due
- Know how much money you will receive for unused vacation and/or sick time