December 18, 2022 • 11 mins
Comment on the Show by Sending Mark a Text Message.
In this episode of the Employee Survival Guide, Mark discusses the recent layoffs in 2022 and how he predicts a recession is already underway. He then provides helpful information about how to handle the severance negotiation with your employer without using an employment attorney. Mark has provided the following links to help you learn about severance negotiation so you can handle your own negotiation. As a holiday gift to the recently departed/severed, Mark has done all the homework for you and placed all the information you need in our blog posts (HERE and HERE) or our Employee Survival Guide Podcast (3rd Season). Enjoy the freemium!
If you want a pdf copy of the EEOC Affidavit template, send Mark an email through his website below and he will send it to you- for free! If you need an employment attorney, please do not hesitate to contact us at Carey & Associates, P.C. HERE!
The content of this website is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice nor create an attorney-client relationship. Carey & Associates, P.C. makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding the accuracy of the information contained on this website or to any website to which it is linked to.
If you enjoyed this episode of the Employee Survival Guide please like us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We would really appreciate if you could leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player such as Apple Podcasts. Leaving a review will inform other listeners you found the content on this podcast is important in the area of employment law in the United States.
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:08):
Hey, it's Mark here and welcome to the next edition of
the Employee Survival Guidewhere I tell you as always, what
your employer does definitelynot want you to know about and a
lot more. Hey, it's Mark and ourepisode today is December 22,
layoffs, recession and severancetips if you got recently
Scrooged in December, you arenot alone. companies engaged in
(00:31):
more terminations in December inJanuary than in any other time
during the year. According to aWall Street Journal article
entitled, why companies dolayoffs around Christmas. Many
companies have been gut punchingemployees such as PepsiCo,
Amazon, Salesforce Mehta, Ford,Ford Motor, Twitter, protocol,
HP, Cisco, Microsoft, andrecently, Goldman Sachs just
(00:54):
announced plans to layoff 1000sand cut bonuses. Ouch. According
to the website, layoffs dot FYI.
979 tech companies have laid offroughly 151,000 employees in
2020 22 alone in 89 companieslaid off employees in December
alone. If you want to get realtime data, go to layoff.com or
the lay off.com. For discussionboards about every company. I
found it pretty interestingmyself and I went there. Are we
(01:17):
there yet? I mean, therecession, it sure feels like
it. But the Federal Reservedisagrees for now. Chairman
Powell said this week, I don'tthink we would qualify as a
recession because you've gotpositive growth and quote, in
October 2022, the ConferenceBoard predicted a 96% likelihood
of a recession in the US withthe next within the next 12
(01:40):
months in a recession startingbefore the end of 2022. Well,
we're there. It's 2000 December2022. And I'm calling it a
recession. From the onslaught oflayoffs and the number of calls
to our offices that appears theywere correct. For comparison
purposes, the Conference Boardpredicted the 2020 recession
with the same 96% likelihood.
(02:03):
That's scary. I've beenpracticing employment law my
entire career since 1997. And Ican smell an economic downturn
and on the horizon. Layoffs canbe an economic lead indicator,
and that is what our firm isseeing right now. I have
represented employees throughthe.com bust of 2001. The 2008
great recession. And now we arehandling clients given severance
(02:25):
packages from the major firms myjust mentioned, but also small
to midsize companies. That'sthroughout the country. Let's
call this the Scrooge recessionbecause no one else wants to if
you haven't, unfortunately beenlaid off in this new recession,
as I predicted back in July of2022, with an article captioned
what's in your sevensnegotiation plan when the
(02:48):
recession hits? And how do youhandle the severance agreements
when you have been given? As Ipreviously stated, you're not
required to tell the employeryou have an employment lawyer. I
actually suggest you don't andkeep the company wondering if
you do while at the same timeyou continue to negotiate
directly with the company. Youcan hint you have an employment
(03:11):
attorney in the background,whatever creative way you can.
There's no law basically sayingyou have to tell your employee
of an attorney as a holiday giftto the recently departed
severed. I've done all thehomework for you in place all
the information you need in ourblog posts and the show notes
and this podcast. Enjoy thefreemium. I mean, when you I
(03:34):
mean when I say you can do yourown severance negotiation
without an employment attorneybluffing your way, faking until
you make it as an attorney andcolleague of mine used to say.
Recently, I was at the store andbumped into an old client. He
announced that he was recentlylaid off and I suggested he
bluff his employer by intimatingthat he had an implemented
(03:57):
attorney like myself in thebackground. The former client
was familiar with the notarizedEEOC affidavit format he had
used before, which set forth acaption of him versus the
employer or Davey versusGoliath, you can use your
imagination. The Affidavit laidout age discrimination facts as
my friend was familiar with thistype of claim having been fired
(04:19):
for age discriminationpreviously, he was 52 at the
time. Recently, I got a emailemail out of the blue and my
friend said the tactic workedand he received 10 times of what
the employer originally offered,which was just only a few weeks
of severance pay. So it is animportant tactic to use and you
don't want to leave money on thetable. So I suggest you make the
(04:43):
attempt. Dig into theinformation I've given you. On
the various blog articles andpodcasts. Either it's going to
be a goodwill negotiation whereyou're going to list all of the
top thing 10 things you've doneto make the company money or,
and by the way, when you dothat, you're going to get an
answer of this is all we aregoing to offer you and nothing
(05:05):
more typically, employers don'treally give you an offer, or
increase the demand or theamount, their severance, unless
you have something of leverageto give them which is really the
second part of the type ofnegotiation you want to try is
simply, you know, what are thefacts, you can read the facts,
just like anybody else, youdon't need to be a lawyer to do
(05:28):
that. And you can look atwhether there's a possibility of
inference of discrimination ofsome sort, whether it be sexual
orientation, age, religion,disability, complaining about
people who have beendiscriminated, including
yourself, which is a retaliationclaim, and try to lay out the
facts, as I've in all theinformation I've given you to
(05:50):
paint the picture in anaffidavit that you have a claim.
So merely the use of the captionof the affidavit, you know, the
United States Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission, and then
you versus your employer with adate and put the EEOC number and
you leave it blank, because youdon't haven't filed it yet. And
you put the caption of you know,Bob Jones, he says, do solemnly
(06:14):
swear and tell us the truthunder penalty of perjury, and
you just identify all the factsin chronological order. And then
you put a notarization at thevery bottom of it. Be signed
before a notary and submitted toyour employer, they're gonna
have the impression that youhave an attorney in the
background. And you're gonnasay, Well, I don't have to tell
(06:37):
you that your employers gonnasay, well, we're not going to
make a counteroffer, unless youtell us well, fine, I'll just go
file my affidavit, what do youwant to do? I'm just giving you
an opportunity right now. So youcan literally do the negotiation
yourself. And why am I sayingall this, I mean, I'm an
employment lawyer make moneydoing this. But my point
(06:59):
actually is a much larger,grander picture of what I want
to have happen is, I'm trying togive you information to equal
the negotiation position withyour employer. And if you do
this, and many more people dothis, employers can begin to
feel that they don't have theupper hand on you, which is the
point I've been trying to make.
And all these three seasons ofthis podcast and all the
(07:22):
articles ever write, we need toreally change the dynamic of the
employers position. Yes, theycan fire you. But if you have
facts to support a claim, wellthen give it a shot. And you
don't need to hire a high pricedlawyer and pay a lot of money to
do it. I'm trying to show you,you can actually do it. And you
may be able to get a higheramount of money from your
(07:46):
employer, which really just goesto pay for your expenses until
you land somewhere else. Thescary part of all this is that
the recession we're about thewall, I think we're in right
now. But what they think thedoomsayers say that to the
recessions can actually pretty,pretty dire, and gonna last for
a very long time. So that, youknow, immediately you think
(08:08):
about, well, I need a lot ofmoney to survive, that I may not
get a job right away. And theother hand of this, you may say,
well, people are getting jobsall the time, you know, we had
the great resignation, quietquitting, and all this things
that have happened, peoplebelieve that they still can get
jobs very quickly. But I thinkthat we all now know that with
(08:31):
all the layoffs have happened,especially in the tech sector,
things have shifted backwards,in favor of the employers. So
are we going back to the sameold same old with employers,
allowing them to tell us whatthey want to do with us? You
know, we just follow what theysay in all now I've been trying
to rattle your cage here. Foryears, since I know you can do
(08:54):
something, I'm trying to giveyou an opportunity here, at
least in the severancenegotiation point to actually do
something, you know, make achange herself and let the
employer know, it does work.
People do this all the time.
It's just that you don't hearabout it, because when they sign
the agreement, there's aconfidentiality and not going to
(09:16):
really want to tell you aboutwhat they did, because they're
going to risk, you know,breaching the agreement and
giving them money back. So I'mjust laying quietly out there,
saying, You really need to giveit a shot, challenge your
employer, learn about it. Allthe information is there, all
the freemium you want is righton my website. Just spend the
(09:39):
time look at it. And I'llcontinue to produce more of it.
So if you're unfortunately laidoff during this holiday season,
I really do feel bad for you andbut you know, there's a bright
horizon here you can possiblynegotiate your increased
severance package and what theyoffered you. So give it a shot,
and then we'll plan for the newyear. Now continue to do these
(10:02):
episodes for you and continue toput other freemium to give you a
shot to take a shot at youremployer. Anyway, have a great
holiday. I'll talk to you soon
Hey, it's Mark here and welcome to the next edition of
the Employee Survival Guidewhere I tell you as always, what
your employer does definitelynot want you to know about and a
lot more. Hey, it's Mark and ourepisode today is December 22,
layoffs, recession and severancetips if you got recently
Scrooged in December, you arenot alone. companies engaged in
(00:31):
more terminations in December inJanuary than in any other time
during the year. According to aWall Street Journal article
entitled, why companies dolayoffs around Christmas. Many
companies have been gut punchingemployees such as PepsiCo,
Amazon, Salesforce Mehta, Ford,Ford Motor, Twitter, protocol,
HP, Cisco, Microsoft, andrecently, Goldman Sachs just
(00:54):
announced plans to layoff 1000sand cut bonuses. Ouch. According
to the website, layoffs dot FYI.
979 tech companies have laid offroughly 151,000 employees in
2020 22 alone in 89 companieslaid off employees in December
alone. If you want to get realtime data, go to layoff.com or
the lay off.com. For discussionboards about every company. I
found it pretty interestingmyself and I went there. Are we
(01:17):
there yet? I mean, therecession, it sure feels like
it. But the Federal Reservedisagrees for now. Chairman
Powell said this week, I don'tthink we would qualify as a
recession because you've gotpositive growth and quote, in
October 2022, the ConferenceBoard predicted a 96% likelihood
of a recession in the US withthe next within the next 12
(01:40):
months in a recession startingbefore the end of 2022. Well,
we're there. It's 2000 December2022. And I'm calling it a
recession. From the onslaught oflayoffs and the number of calls
to our offices that appears theywere correct. For comparison
purposes, the Conference Boardpredicted the 2020 recession
with the same 96% likelihood.
(02:03):
That's scary. I've beenpracticing employment law my
entire career since 1997. And Ican smell an economic downturn
and on the horizon. Layoffs canbe an economic lead indicator,
and that is what our firm isseeing right now. I have
represented employees throughthe.com bust of 2001. The 2008
great recession. And now we arehandling clients given severance
(02:25):
packages from the major firms myjust mentioned, but also small
to midsize companies. That'sthroughout the country. Let's
call this the Scrooge recessionbecause no one else wants to if
you haven't, unfortunately beenlaid off in this new recession,
as I predicted back in July of2022, with an article captioned
what's in your sevensnegotiation plan when the
(02:48):
recession hits? And how do youhandle the severance agreements
when you have been given? As Ipreviously stated, you're not
required to tell the employeryou have an employment lawyer. I
actually suggest you don't andkeep the company wondering if
you do while at the same timeyou continue to negotiate
directly with the company. Youcan hint you have an employment
(03:11):
attorney in the background,whatever creative way you can.
There's no law basically sayingyou have to tell your employee
of an attorney as a holiday giftto the recently departed
severed. I've done all thehomework for you in place all
the information you need in ourblog posts and the show notes
and this podcast. Enjoy thefreemium. I mean, when you I
(03:34):
mean when I say you can do yourown severance negotiation
without an employment attorneybluffing your way, faking until
you make it as an attorney andcolleague of mine used to say.
Recently, I was at the store andbumped into an old client. He
announced that he was recentlylaid off and I suggested he
bluff his employer by intimatingthat he had an implemented
(03:57):
attorney like myself in thebackground. The former client
was familiar with the notarizedEEOC affidavit format he had
used before, which set forth acaption of him versus the
employer or Davey versusGoliath, you can use your
imagination. The Affidavit laidout age discrimination facts as
my friend was familiar with thistype of claim having been fired
(04:19):
for age discriminationpreviously, he was 52 at the
time. Recently, I got a emailemail out of the blue and my
friend said the tactic workedand he received 10 times of what
the employer originally offered,which was just only a few weeks
of severance pay. So it is animportant tactic to use and you
don't want to leave money on thetable. So I suggest you make the
(04:43):
attempt. Dig into theinformation I've given you. On
the various blog articles andpodcasts. Either it's going to
be a goodwill negotiation whereyou're going to list all of the
top thing 10 things you've doneto make the company money or,
and by the way, when you dothat, you're going to get an
answer of this is all we aregoing to offer you and nothing
(05:05):
more typically, employers don'treally give you an offer, or
increase the demand or theamount, their severance, unless
you have something of leverageto give them which is really the
second part of the type ofnegotiation you want to try is
simply, you know, what are thefacts, you can read the facts,
just like anybody else, youdon't need to be a lawyer to do
(05:28):
that. And you can look atwhether there's a possibility of
inference of discrimination ofsome sort, whether it be sexual
orientation, age, religion,disability, complaining about
people who have beendiscriminated, including
yourself, which is a retaliationclaim, and try to lay out the
facts, as I've in all theinformation I've given you to
(05:50):
paint the picture in anaffidavit that you have a claim.
So merely the use of the captionof the affidavit, you know, the
United States Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission, and then
you versus your employer with adate and put the EEOC number and
you leave it blank, because youdon't haven't filed it yet. And
you put the caption of you know,Bob Jones, he says, do solemnly
(06:14):
swear and tell us the truthunder penalty of perjury, and
you just identify all the factsin chronological order. And then
you put a notarization at thevery bottom of it. Be signed
before a notary and submitted toyour employer, they're gonna
have the impression that youhave an attorney in the
background. And you're gonnasay, Well, I don't have to tell
(06:37):
you that your employers gonnasay, well, we're not going to
make a counteroffer, unless youtell us well, fine, I'll just go
file my affidavit, what do youwant to do? I'm just giving you
an opportunity right now. So youcan literally do the negotiation
yourself. And why am I sayingall this, I mean, I'm an
employment lawyer make moneydoing this. But my point
(06:59):
actually is a much larger,grander picture of what I want
to have happen is, I'm trying togive you information to equal
the negotiation position withyour employer. And if you do
this, and many more people dothis, employers can begin to
feel that they don't have theupper hand on you, which is the
point I've been trying to make.
And all these three seasons ofthis podcast and all the
(07:22):
articles ever write, we need toreally change the dynamic of the
employers position. Yes, theycan fire you. But if you have
facts to support a claim, wellthen give it a shot. And you
don't need to hire a high pricedlawyer and pay a lot of money to
do it. I'm trying to show you,you can actually do it. And you
may be able to get a higheramount of money from your
(07:46):
employer, which really just goesto pay for your expenses until
you land somewhere else. Thescary part of all this is that
the recession we're about thewall, I think we're in right
now. But what they think thedoomsayers say that to the
recessions can actually pretty,pretty dire, and gonna last for
a very long time. So that, youknow, immediately you think
(08:08):
about, well, I need a lot ofmoney to survive, that I may not
get a job right away. And theother hand of this, you may say,
well, people are getting jobsall the time, you know, we had
the great resignation, quietquitting, and all this things
that have happened, peoplebelieve that they still can get
jobs very quickly. But I thinkthat we all now know that with
(08:31):
all the layoffs have happened,especially in the tech sector,
things have shifted backwards,in favor of the employers. So
are we going back to the sameold same old with employers,
allowing them to tell us whatthey want to do with us? You
know, we just follow what theysay in all now I've been trying
to rattle your cage here. Foryears, since I know you can do
(08:54):
something, I'm trying to giveyou an opportunity here, at
least in the severancenegotiation point to actually do
something, you know, make achange herself and let the
employer know, it does work.
People do this all the time.
It's just that you don't hearabout it, because when they sign
the agreement, there's aconfidentiality and not going to
(09:16):
really want to tell you aboutwhat they did, because they're
going to risk, you know,breaching the agreement and
giving them money back. So I'mjust laying quietly out there,
saying, You really need to giveit a shot, challenge your
employer, learn about it. Allthe information is there, all
the freemium you want is righton my website. Just spend the
(09:39):
time look at it. And I'llcontinue to produce more of it.
So if you're unfortunately laidoff during this holiday season,
I really do feel bad for you andbut you know, there's a bright
horizon here you can possiblynegotiate your increased
severance package and what theyoffered you. So give it a shot,
and then we'll plan for the newyear. Now continue to do these
(10:02):
episodes for you and continue toput other freemium to give you a
shot to take a shot at youremployer. Anyway, have a great
holiday. I'll talk to you soon
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