Poll of the Day > Got laid off and company doesn´t want to pay my Severance any advice?

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I worked for a rather large well known IT company for 5 years... Got laid off past Monday. Based on my contract If I quit the company had to pay 5 days salary for each year I worked there. If I was laid off the company had to pay me 1 month salary after taxes for each year I worked there.

However They wanted for me to quit voluntarily for my severance to be 5,000 instead of 30,000. after negotiating with my lawyer they offered me 22,500 or 75% if I drop the lawsuit. If I decide to pursue the lawsuit it may take up to 18 months to 2 years for them to pay me based on previous similar cases AND there is a chance they may win the lawsuit and I will get nothing.....should I accept the 22,500 dollars or go for the 30,000?

I do not have any debts at the moment but not that many savings either, my wife earns enough for us to live 'just ok'....

This is not the kind of stuff I usually port here but advice will be appreciated....being unemployed is really depressing specially if you lost your dream job
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Surprised you even had a job tbf.
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if everything you said is true, take the money now 100%

Couldn't the legal fees potentially exceed that $7,500 difference? On another note, sad to hear you got booted. Best of luck finding another job.
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InfestedAdam posted...

Couldn't the legal fees potentially exceed that $7,500 difference? On another note, sad to hear you got booted. Best of luck finding another job.

It depends. You can sometimes get the other side to pay your legal fees if you win - but it isn't necessarily cut and dry that you'll get it.

At the very least I would be threatening them that I will take them to court over it (even if I didn't actually intend to), as regardless of whether they win or not, legal fees will cost more than that for them - and even if they win it's highly unlikely the judge would force you to pay their legal fees.

The bigger hiccup is that they know they can drag this out for a while, and are using that as leverage to force you to accept a lower amount. Most people don't want to (or can't) let 30k just sit around doing nothing for 2 years while the legal situations gets sorted out.
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If your story is legit the $22k is the obvious choice. The lawsuit will get you what you're owed, sure, but it's a gamble and the potential legal fees and stigma going forward aren't worth it.
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I'd sue them for justice.

Trying to scam their workers for company profit.
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Syntheticon posted...

If your story is legit

Its not.

wwinterj25 posted...

Surprised you even had a job tbf.

I had a lot of time and was very good at it. Which allowed me to post in gamefaqs a lot

I'd take the $22,500 now, just make sure you have it in writing and they really do deliver it.
The "gamble" isn't just winning the court case and having them pay your lawyer fees, it's if even after that you'll ever see most of that 30K.
This company sounds shady as fuck, wouldn't be surprised if they try other tricks to avoid paying you or delay it. Only know what you said, but is it possible they may not even exist in 2 years (go bankrupt; change company name and the person named as owner and try to pass themselves off as a different corporate entity; etc...)?

It sucks they they're trying to cheat you out of the full amount owed, but sometimes it comes down to taking the better of two bad options, or putting principle ahead of what's actually in your best interest.

Since you have a lawyer already, what's s/he say?

Given the situation you outlined, I would strongly recommend you take the 22.5k now. It reduces all the risk and that extra 7.5k will be taxed at a higher rate. There is no reason to potentially damage your career long term (whether showing that you were in a lawsuit or because you don't have a large enough safety net and are forced to take another job that isn't ideal).

This way, you should have a significant amount of savings to be fine and take your time finding a job you want to be at rather than are forced to take. If you do find a job right away, you could always put more of that money in some type of savings vehicle.
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