We're laying off about 15 people from our team next week. None of them are managers, so the CEO doesn't think we have to give large severance packages. Some of these people have been with us for years, but he wants to give everyone a flat $1,500. This doesn't seem right to me. I want to give a week's worth of pay for each year they've been with our company. Doesn't that sound better?

Coming from someone that was recently laid off, $1500 is a slap in the face. Losing your job unexpectedly is a horrifying experience that most people are not prepared for. The high pressure of worrying how you will pay bills, take care of your family, and find a new job is taxing to put it lightly. I was lucky enough to receive 3 months severance which has helped substantially and I only worked for the company 1 year.

No amount of severance pay is going to soften the blow of being laid off but one week is a slap in the face. I was laid off a year ago and was only given two weeks of severance pay on top of my PTO pay out. A year later I am still looking for a job and unemployment is now gone.

People deserve severance. Also I thought it had to be communicated 60 days in advance which essentially turns it into severance? Unless your company is under 100 people.

Does the company have a severence plan? Sounds like they dont because if they had one it would be spelled out in the severence plan agreement. Each laid off employee should receive a severance agreement and as someone already mentioned, the employer will need to file a warn notice with the state (CA) if laying off 50 or more of the staff.

Usually the standard is up to four weeks of severance pay. Not a week for every year they’ve been there.

I would say that your offer is possibly too high, but the CEO is being quite mean. However, redundancy is not about length of service, it is generally about having to cut costs and it is about losing the role from the business, not the actual person.

The moment you make severance packages personal, is the moment that you are acknowledging the person and their contribution, rather than the sadder reality that their position is no longer required in the business. This can also be a little difficult legally.

Could you do something in between? For example, a severance of 5k, providing they give a full handover of duties? This is key, as a lot of people have been made redundant, but not expected to handover any work, or provide any kind of process flows so someone else can pick up where they leave off.

I hope these different perspectives help!

During this job market people are out of work between 6 months and one year on average. Any laid off employee should have one month severance of pay per year they worked AND be given one month's notice of their end date.

One week per year is standard and fair. Obviously, employee would need to sign release to get the severance.

Depending on your state and its laws, there may be no legal requirement for either notice or termination pay including accrued but unused vacation/PTO. My already small company got even small so the CFO decided to outsource the HR function and my role was eliminate. I got no severance but did get my unused PTO (about $700 worth) which is NOT required in the state of Arizona, so I happy to have gotten that.

I would advise you choose the hill to die on doing battle with the company CEO and recommend it not be that one.