Employee Survival Guide® - That Severance Package Is the Price of Your Lawsuit

Episode Date: September 29, 2026

Send us Fan MailHave you ever wondered what your severance package really means and what it reveals about your employer's true intentions? Join Mark Carey in this eye-opening episode of the Employee Survival Guide® as he unpacks the critical nuances surrounding severance packages, exposing them as strategic maneuvers rather than mere acts of generosity. Discover how severance checks are often designed to buy a release from potential legal claims, shedding light on the often-overlooked motivations behind these offers. Mark dives deep into the concept of at-will employment, illustrating how this legal framework allows employers to terminate employees without cause, creating an atmosphere of fear that often leads to the provision of severance. This episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating the complexities of employment and severance negotiations. Mark emphasizes the importance of understanding your worth and leverage in these discussions, revealing that most severance offers come with hidden clauses that can limit your rights and claims. Through engaging insights and practical advice, he empowers listeners to recognize the true value of their claims and approach severance negotiations with confidence. Are you facing a severance situation? Mark provides actionable steps for employees to take when confronted with a severance package. From taking the time to thoroughly review the severance packet to consulting with an employment lawyer, he equips you with the knowledge necessary to ensure you receive fair treatment during these transitions. This episode serves as a vital guide for employees looking to protect their rights in the workplace, whether you are dealing with discrimination, retaliation, or simply the challenges of a hostile work environment. With a focus on employee empowerment and advocacy, this episode of the Employee Survival Guide® is packed with insider tips for negotiating severance packages and understanding employment law issues. Mark's insights into workplace dynamics, including the implications of severance pay, confidentiality agreements, and noncompete clauses, will leave you feeling informed and ready to tackle any employment dispute that may arise. Don’t let your career be dictated by fear or uncertainty. Tune in to gain the knowledge you need to navigate severance packages effectively and advocate for your rights in the workplace. Whether you're dealing with workplace harassment, performance reviews, or simply looking to improve your job satisfaction, this episode is your essential resource for surviving and thriving in your career. </div>  If you enjoyed this episode of the Employee Survival Guide please like us on Facebook, X and LinkedIn.  We would really appreciate if you could leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Leaving a review will help other employees find the Employee Survival Guide.  For more information, please contact our employment attorneys at Carey & Associates, P.C. at 203-255-4150, www.capclaw.com.Disclaimer:  For educational use only, not intended to be legal advice. 

Hey, it's Mark here and welcome to the next edition of the Employee Survival Guide, where I tell you, as always, what your employer does definitely not want you to know about, and a lot more. It's Mark, and welcome back to the Employee Survival Guide, where I tell you what your employer does not want you to know about, and a lot more, of course. Today's topic, that severance check is the price of your lawsuit. It just walked you out, or they are about to do that, and wherein somebody from HR put a packet in your hands and said, this is our standard package, take it or leave it. You have until Friday to accept. I want you to hear

the sentence they are not saying. They are not paying you because they are generous. They are not paying you because of your years of service. They are buying a release of your claims, legal claims. That check is the price of your lawsuit. They want to avoid. Once you sign it, the claims you did not even know are gone. Here's what your employer knows that you do not. Over 90% of you are at will. In an at-will world, they can fire you tomorrow and owe you nothing. So why does the packet exist?

You probably ask yourself that question. Because employers are afraid. Let me repeat that. Employers are afraid of you. Now, should I repeat it a third time? Because employers are afraid of you what you can do. You don't see it through my lens in the world. world. You just hear what the employer wants you to hear. So I write that I wrote long ago that

employers are afraid. They pay severance out of fear of getting sued. I mean, I've been in business for nearly 30 years. This is all I do. I threaten lawsuits against employers because employers are concerned. You know, it's it's like I'm the policeman trying to police their bad acts until they get caught, you know, the hand in the cookie jar. Fear is your leverage. You need to understand. understand that. It's not a gratitude they're paying severance for. It's not your loyalty for all those years who served your employer. It's plain and simple fear. And the other component of fear, it's shame. Learn the language of shaming your employer for the shit that they created, not you. They did it to you. They're responsible. Most people try to negotiate these servants themselves.

I've watched that for a long time. The company says this is a one-time offer. The employee takes two weeks of pay and a confidentiality clause that muzzles their accountant, their spouse, and their lawyer. That is not a negotiation. That's a surrender. Don't do that. So let me unpack the paper for you. First, if this is even a gift or is it a plan, some companies run severance through an ERISA plan that's called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. I do the area of work. It's not complicated. It's just a plan benefit. If they do it, the planned document, is the floor and not the ceiling of the severance you're going to get. You have the right to appeal, your denial of benefits, etc.

So when you're at the meeting, ask the question in writing, is the severance paid under an ERISA plan? Send me the plan document if it does. If they freeze and react to your question, that's information. It indicates that you are aware of more information than you probably have painted yourself out to exist in your employer. So it means that you understand or at least have the basic understanding that an ERISA plan exists or you know how to ask for it or that even you have talked to an employment lawyer like me because I've infected you with that phrase, the acronym E-R-I-S-A. Anyhow, number two, what are they buying? A general lease. Every discrimination claim, every wage claim,

every whistleblower theory you have not named. You probably don't even know exists. In exchange, you get money and sometimes COBRA help, you know, that COBRA benefit issue. By the way, footnote, you know, go on the Obama exchanges, you know, not touting that issue, but you probably get a cheaper rate there. And sometimes a reference that says you were employed from the company from so-and-so date. So that's another benefit you get and you sign the deal. If you want more money, you need a legal claim. Face it, without a claim, you're asking them to be nice. This is nice is not a strategy. All employers understand is, you know, hitting them across the head or I use the, you know, the baseball bat with some nails attached to it, maybe some spikes, you know, get the image of that.

So it really works because employers are big-headed, strong-headed, they're stubborn. You got to make them move. Three, the traps inside the packet. Well, confidentiality that is wider than you are than you imagined. A clawback that gets the money back from you when you say the wrong sentence at a barbecue. By the way, when you get a severance, just shut up, okay? Just don't talk. Just, you know, don't make a mistake.

A non-compete is usually buried in the severance agreement. You never had one before, but now you have one. Cooperation clause that makes you their free witness for the next three years. Don't do that. Always want to get paid for your cooperation and limit it to like a very short time. like three weeks a month. A short deadline designed to panic you into signing before you talk to anyone, like me, an employment lawyer, you want to basically avoid that. If you are 40 and older, federal law gives you a little more time to look at the paper.

Use the time. Don't donate it to the employer. Here's what you do in the first 48 hours. Take the back at home. Look at it. Do not sign it in the conference room. Write down what they said to you when they handed you to you. Who said it? happened and go back the next six months before they decided to give it to you. Do not vent on the

company email system after you get this. Do not post about it. Do not do anything. Do not resign because they asked you to resign. That actually does happen. So just be careful. Resignation is actually cheaper because they don't pay your unemployment benefits because, you know, quitting and doesn't get your benefits. Then get the packet in front of an employment lawyer like myself, not your neighbor who does real estate closings, an employment lawyer like me. There is a direct correlation between having an employment lawyer on the paper and the number that they offered you having it go up in terms of value, meaning more money. We also cut out the one-sided pieces of the terms that exist in these one-sided deals. So we make it more mutual, like a mutual release, a mutual confidentiality,

the cooperation clause or removing the non-compete that snuck in confidentiality gags that gags your family. So you can oftentimes, you know, work with the health insurance issue as well in the severance agreement. You can ask for a lump sum instead of a salary continuation. You can ask for mutual non-despairagement. It means they can't say anything bad about you. You can ask for them to pay your legal fees, although that's very uncommon for the employer to do that. For a higher level of executives, that actually does happen. What not to do is treat the first number as the last number. A lot of people do that. They get freaked out. They, they stomach pains, whatever. It's like the anxiety.

Don't sign it just because you're tired. Tired is the point. They want to beat you down. They want to basically exhaust you. Just take a pause, okay? The packet is not a favor. The severance package is a purchase order for your silence. Read it, understand it. Understand what it does.

Listen to this podcast because I talk a lot about it. So they tell you it's a standard package usually means, you know, what does it mean? There is no standard package. It means the number they can live with without you suing them. It's not a market price. There is no market price. It's not a formal based on years of a service,

although that sometimes IRISA claim. Plan benefits do set it up that way and cap it, usually at six months. Years of service is a story they tell you to make the first number feel official. The real formula is, how expensive are you not to sign that a deal? Like, what's your price? So this entire podcast, I can tell you, it's all about finding out what your price is, you know, their leverage, you know, what you're worth. I mean, you got to, you have some value here and it's much higher than you think it is. That's why I tell you the chronology, the narrative,

matters before the math. It's bewildering to understand that most people don't think about that those facts that led up to, you know, they think about the emotions, but it's your facts. That's why I've just been beating a drum on the facts in nailing down your narrative that's what happened in a year before your meeting. What was a leave request? Did you file a complaint? What were the age-related comments? What about a review that flipped around? Like, you know, you didn't expect it.

Wage issues, not getting paid overtime. You know, what if you're a computer person working on AI and, you know, you don't really fit into the exemption category, a non-compete that they want to add? Those facts change the price. Without them, you are haggling over a courtesy, and courtesies don't do anything. People try to say, well, I can negotiate my goodwill. Like, good luck, it's not going to work. But they say the offer expires Friday. Put the expiration in your notes and keep reading.

Panic deadlines are a tactic. You need to understand that. If you are 40 or over, you have more time than Friday, whether they like it or not. So take the time. If you have a COBRA issue, or the laptop. The last paycheck becomes the reason you had to sign a bad release, avoid those things. Severance negotiation is a process you need to go through and you need to think logically. You need to think strategically. You need to gather your facts. You need to talk to an employment lawyer.

You need to listen to a podcast or two about this. There's ways to deal with an employer. But understand one fundamental issue. Employers want the deal more than you do. And I can't repeat that enough. They fear that you might do something. You might expose them. They might have to do some marketing triage to deal with what you're about to disclose. We produce podcasts, episodes that you never hear about. That's not a joke.

I produce podcasts for these cases based upon sworn statements by clients. And we send it to the employers for them to listen to the narrative that is based upon their affidavit. I mean, pretty creative. So, you know, when people listen to this stuff, they react. When the people who are the decision makers who engage in the bad acts listen to their story in audio, it's, and I don't do the video, but the audio, it changes things. It makes the business folks decide, hmm, shit, I got, we got a problem. We got a real problem. So don't sign it, okay?

Look what you got in your hand before you do it. evaluate it, figure out whether you have something. If you have something, go, you know, stick the employer. And it's a private negotiation. No one's going to know except for you and them. So with that said, thank you for letting me service. Have a great week. If you like the employee survival guide, I'd really encourage you to leave a review. We try really hard to produce information to you that's informative, that's timely that you can actually use and solve problems on your own and at your employment. So if you like to leave a review anywhere you listen to our podcast, please do so. And leave five stars because anything less than five is really not as good, right? I'll keep it up. I'll keep the standards up. I'll keep the information flowing at you. If you'd like to send me an email and ask me a question, I'll actually review it and post it on there. You can send it to MCA-R-U-I at C-A-P-C-Law.com. That's capclaw.com.