5 Things to Negotiate in Your Termination Package

We’ve all heard about negotiating your salary or even your severance package, but what happens if you’re fired or terminated? Can you negotiate your termination package? Yes, you can! Here are five things to negotiate in your termination package.

Don’t sign anything at all.

No matter what they say to you, do not sign your termination letter…yet! Tell them you need to get counsel and will get back to them within seven days.

Ask for more money.

Even when you are terminated, you can receive a severance package. If you were with the company for less than a year, try to get one week of severance for every month of employment. For example, six months of employment equals six weeks of severance. If you have been with the company for several years, ask for 1 month for every year of employment. In other words, 3 years of employment equals 3 months of severance. 

Ask for health insurance for at least six months.

Cobra or private health insurance is expensive.

Ask for outplacement services.

Outplacement services are support services to help you with your career transition. Outplacement companies provide resume writing, career coaching, job search strategy, interview prep, and even assistance with job placement. You can ask your soon-to-be former employer to provide outplacement services through a company they contract with or to give you a stipend that you can use to hire your own resume writer and career coach. 

Request access to your documents.

Try to retrieve your contacts or any personal documents that you have on your work computer. We all do it. It’s bad practice. But I’ve had too many clients lose all their resumes, testimonials, referral letters, and performance reviews because they were on their employer’s computer, and now, they’re locked out and did not ask for access.

Getting terminated doesn’t feel good, and we just want to put it behind us. Practicing these five steps will give you some space to figure out a few things. You might not get all of what you ask for, but hopefully, you can secure one or two of the above items that will make things just a little easier. 

Losing your job is not the end of the world. You will land on your feet, and in fact, you might land in an even better place. Time to activate your next career dream!