My firm offered a stay bonus. Three people quit last month, so they offered the survivors $15k to sign a one-year commitment letter. I need the cash, but I feel like I’m signing away my mental health for a relatively small price. Smart to decline?

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Take it, but be prepared to be asked to pay it back if you end up leaving. Then do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself! My friend got a retention bonus, left within the year, and the company didn’t ask for it back.

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Well, you don’t really want to tip your hand if you might leave.

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Sign it. Get that money.

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Best advice I’ve seen all day. Times are tough. Let me cry while getting a pedicure on company dime

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Ask for $30k to sign

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What’s the worst case scenario if you sign it but still leave within a year? You have to pay back the $15,000?

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I work in L&E, and while I’ve never represented a law firm, a lot of companies do ask for it back and will sue their employees for repayment. And the agreement might even have a requirement to pay interest, so be careful what you sign

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Interesting. I guess they wanted to make the point. Legal fees probably cost well over that.

Do you plan on leaving? If you dont sign, they will know you plan on leaving, you may as well quit right then

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If you lean toward signing, make sure they can’t easily axe, as you’d need the consideration to include not just cash but something more protective than an at-will. Then use that as protection/leverage to do minimally compliant work. Eg, don’t go out of your way to fix a sinking ship.

When my firm did retention bonuses, getting fired or let go was an exception to having to pay back the money in the agreement we signed, unless the termination was for “willful misconduct”

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Let them try to claw back. It’s a real bad look, and if you counter with an employment claim their litigation costs quickly outweigh any sort of recovery they might make.

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