Dan Goodman’s Post

Employees don’t go at it alone. Your employer has the deck stacked against you. They are worse than the house in Las Vegas. They have $800 an hour lawyers writing legal agreements you are expected to sign that heavily favor the employer in every way. They have human resource professionals who went to school, have been trained on it for years, and have done 100s of severances. ❌ They purposively withhold information or mispresent how severance works, why they offer it, and what they are willing to do. ❌ They often offer half of what they are willing to pay and tell you it’s their “last and final” offer while reminding you of the deadline and that they don't have to offer you anything. ❌ They stress and pressure you all while gaslighting you about your performance. ❌ They have their system send you an automated message every night at 2am reminding you to sign your severance agreement. ❌ They blindside you and take advantage of you when you are at your most vulnerable time. You start to question yourself. Not knowing why this happened. What you did wrong. What you could have done differently. You are worried about your job prospects in the most saturated job market of your lifetime. You are left wondering where the next paycheck is coming from to provide for your family. Not knowing how severance works, why they offer it, if you can negotiate it, or even how to go about it. They don't offer it because they like you or feel bad. They have no legal obligation to offer you anything. You have something they want and are willing to pay you money for it. Your signiture on a release of all claims. To promise to never sue them. That is the sole reason. Of course you should negotiate it. Don’t go at it alone. Your employer is counting on it. I am here to help. Since February 2023 ..... ✅ Helped almost 700 paid clients resolve disputes with their employer. ✅ Assisted in over 250 severance negotiations. ✅ The last 130 have had a success rate of almost 70%. ✅ The average increase has been 138% or $31k from the original offer. ✅ The total severance increase during this time is greater than $2.7m. If you don’t negotiate your severance, you are leaving money on the table. You will have difficulty putting your termination behind you. If you don’t stand up to it, it will likely linger and can lead to years of regret. Standing up to wrongdoing and gaslighting can be one of the most empowering and profound things you can do, as many of my clients have shared. #sales #severance #negotiate p.s. If you need help with your employment agreements, restrictive clauses, severance, PIPs, equity grants, comp plans, wage/commission disputes or general guidance or coaching, hit me up. Don't go at it alone.

Employees don’t go at it alone. Your employer has the deck stacked against you. They are worse than the house in Las Vegas. They have $800 an hour lawyers writing legal agreements you are expected to sign that heavily favor the employer in every way. They have human resource professionals who went to school, have been trained on it for years, and have done 100s of severances. ❌ They purposively withhold information or mispresent how severance works, why they offer it, and what they are willing to do. ❌ They often offer half of what they are willing to pay and tell you it’s their “last and final” offer while reminding you of the deadline and that they don't have to offer you anything. ❌ They stress and pressure you all while gaslighting you about your performance. ❌ They have their system send you an automated message every night at 2am reminding you to sign your severance agreement. ❌ They blindside you and take advantage of you when you are at your most vulnerable time. You start to question yourself. Not knowing why this happened. What you did wrong. What you could have done differently. You are worried about your job prospects in the most saturated job market of your lifetime. You are left wondering where the next paycheck is coming from to provide for your family. Not knowing how severance works, why they offer it, if you can negotiate it, or even how to go about it. They don't offer it because they like you or feel bad. They have no legal obligation to offer you anything. You have something they want and are willing to pay you money for it. Your signature on a release of all claims. To promise to never sue them. That is the sole reason. Of course you should negotiate it. Don’t go at it alone. Your employer is counting on it. We are here to help. Since February 2023 ..... ✅ Helped almost 700 paid clients resolve disputes with their employer. ✅ Assisted in over 250 severance negotiations. ✅ The last 130 have had a success rate of almost 70%. ✅ The average increase has been 138% or $31k from the original offer. ✅ The total severance increase during this time is greater than $2.7m. If you don’t negotiate your severance, you are leaving money on the table. You will have difficulty putting your termination behind you. If you don’t stand up to it, it will likely linger and can lead to years of regret. Standing up to wrongdoing and gaslighting can be one of the most empowering and profound things you can do, as many of our clients have shared. p.s. If you need help with your employment agreements, restrictive clauses, severance, PIPs, equity grants, comp plans, wage/commission disputes or general guidance or coaching, reach out. Don't go at it alone.

Will my severance be pulled? A question I get asked more than any other. Let’s understand why employers offer severance. Many are confused and have it backwards. Primarily because of the way employers misrepresent it. They ask, “will my employer withdraw my severance offer if I try to negotiate it?” NO. I have never seen or heard of it happening. I cannot think of a logical scenario why they would ever reduce it or withdraw it. However, we are dealing with humans and emotions and theoretically anything is possible. Leaders have been known to make illogical and self-harming actions. With that said, employers don’t offer severance because they have to. Not because there is a legal requirement. Not because they like you or feel bad. They do it solely to have you sign a release of liability. Any claims you could have against them. Past, present, future. Known and unknown. No other reason. Once you sign, you are done. You never existed. Without the signature you are a liability hanging over their head until the statute of limitations runs out. You are a loose end that they want to tie off. You have something they seek, your signiture. They are willing to pay you a pile of money for it although they have no requirement to. Think about that. The value of your signature does not change because ❌ you seek to negotiate a legal binding agreement ❌ a meaningless deadline passes ❌ weeks or months have gone by Your employer is not doing you a favor by offering severance, they are doing it for their own selfish reasons. Approach severance and negotiations through that lens not the one your employer shows you. 

Y'all! This post really spoke to me. This advice is on point! While I've not worked with Dan, I have used his suggestions in the post and have had success with it.🙌 Layoffs, terminations and severance aren't popular topics we like to talk about with friends... It's REAL and happening more and more often. I've been impacted several times and for me, it was an emotional event. I felt embarrassed and isolated and those feelings had me trying to handle it all alone versus reaching out to a trusted advisor that could review an offer more logically. Don't let emotions let you leave money or resources on the table! This is a crucial time to advocate for yourself! ➡️Gather your notes ➡️Make your talking points ➡️Practice your delivery ➡️Have the conversation 📝Get all updated offers in writing While I hope you never need this advice, I do recommend you screenshot it and save it just in case... If you've been impacted and used any of the tips, please share your experience in the comments to benefit others who will read this⬇️

Negotiating a severance is about so much more than increasing the payout. I would not have believed it if you told me that 12-18 months ago. When I first started helping people with severance and commission disputes and other monetary things, I thought it was all about helping them get money that they earned and deserved. Mostly about the monetary impact or benefit. I have quickly come to learn that is rarely the case. It is about so much more than that. In most instances, the money is secondary for many of my clients. Many come to me down in the dumps. Stolen from, lied to, betrayed, discarded. This after years of loyalty and often still great performance. Treated in a disrespectful and deceitful way that leaves them spinning and upset. I help provide the support and confidence to stand up to the wrongdoing. To call out the lies and deceit, and state your truthful narrative in a strong, scary, reputationally damaging way. It can be one of the most empowering things someone can do. It provides the employee the ability to put the situation behind them once and for all and to avoid carrying regret for years or decades for how they were treated and did nothing about it. To quote one client, it’s not about the extra $25k we got after the first round of negotiations. It’s the life lessons, the education, the insights on how employers operate behind the scenes. The different lens they look at life through now. To not be as blindly trusting and loyal, to question things, to not be afraid to stand up for themselves, to not hide or run from confrontation. My client shared that our engagement was worth much more than the $25k he received in the last counter offer. That he would spend it in 2-3 months to pay for his household and it would be gone. The lessons from our engagement he shared would stay with him for a lifetime. After another two rounds of negotiations, we increased his final offer by $73k. 

How to get an extension to review or negotiate your severance agreement. In almost every severance agreement I have seen (more than 800), 99% of them state that the employee has been advised to have an attorney review it. In some instances, it states that you acknowledge that you’ve been given enough time to review it. If you are over 40 years old, by federal law, you have either 21 or 45 days to review it and 7 days to revoke it. Under 40, anything goes and sadly most employers take advantage of this situation. They create false deadlines to coerce you into signing a severance and releasing the employer of any claim you could ever have against them. Yet the document says that you are signing it of your own free will and have not been pressured or coerced into signing it. Really. That is pretty much what the severance game is all about. Creating anxiety, stress and pressure to coerce you into giving up and walking away. If your employer rejects your reasonable request for a reasonable amount of time to review the severance, let them know that you can’t sign something that you don’t fully understand and as a result you are unable to sign the agreement. You can’t promise to abide by a legal binding document that has both legal, professional and financial implications and you do not fully understand it. Your employer’s actions are the definition of coercion. Suggest they speak to their legal counsel regarding your request if they hope to enforce the agreement. After sending the second note, we’ve yet to not get an extension. p.s. If anyone would like a copy of the email, DM me and I’ll be happy to send it over. I have shared it with more than 100 people this year alone. 

#Staffing companies are increasingly transitioning from traditional guaranteed cost #WorkersCompensation programs to large deductible structures. In this blog, discover the advantages of switching to a large deductible program. 

#Staffing companies are increasingly transitioning from traditional guaranteed cost #WorkersCompensation programs to large deductible structures. In this blog, discover the advantages of switching to a large deductible program. 

#Staffing companies are increasingly transitioning from traditional guaranteed cost #WorkersCompensation programs to large deductible structures. In this blog, discover the advantages of switching to a large deductible program. 

#Staffing companies are increasingly transitioning from traditional guaranteed cost #WorkersCompensation programs to large deductible structures. In this blog, discover the advantages of switching to a large deductible program.