Transcript
Speaker: Hey, stop there for a second before you sign that separation agreement that's sitting on your table right now. I want to read you one sentence out loud.
Speaker: are you ready? So, we have determined that your employment is is no longer beneficial to this company. Therefore, you may not work for anyone else in this industry for the next 18 months.
Speaker: Read that again. They just told you you're not good enough to work to work here. And in the the same document, they're telling you you're too dangerous to work anywhere else.
Speaker: How does that make any kind of sense? It doesn't. And that's exactly what we're going to be unpacking today.
Speaker: Let me be honest with you. I have a friend who went through this recently. Mid-50s, admired within the company, called into a conference room on ah on a Thursday and and handed a a multi-page separation document.
Speaker: they They told him it was standard. they They told him he had until, I think it was Monday, or or he could even sign right then and there on the spot.
Speaker: they They told him not to discuss it with any anyone. And here's the thing. He almost signed it. Because when you're sitting there in shock with ah a severance check dangling in front of your face and a mortgage payment due in two weeks, your brain is not in analysis mode.
Speaker: It's in survival mode. and And companies, they know that. In fact, they're counting on it.
Speaker: I want you to reframe this in a way that changes everything. You're not being given money. You're actually being bought. All right, bear with me. The company is purchasing something from you and every single clause in that agreement is an asset that they want to acquire.
Speaker: Let me walk you through what they're actually buying. Number one. They are buying your legal claims. That release of claims clause, it means you can never sue them for discrimination, for harassment, for retaliation, for wage theft, for FMLA violations.
Speaker: Gone. All of it. Permanently. It's gone. And that matters. Because if you're over 50 and you were pushed out,
Speaker: There's ah a very real chance that those claims are worth a lot more than they're offering you. Then there's number two. They're buying your voice.
Speaker: The non-disparagement clause. you you You can't speak publicly about what happened inside of those walls, even if what happened was illegal.
Speaker: Now, here's the thing. The National Labor Relations Board has has already ruled that that many non-disparagement clauses in severance agreements violate federal labor law.
Speaker: But companies still put them in there because they're betting that you don't know the law.
Speaker: Number three, they're buying your truth confidentiality clauses. You can't tell the next employer why you really left.
Speaker: You can't tell your colleagues what they offered you. And you can't even tell your spouse if the document and the language in it is broad enough.
Speaker: Number four, they're buying your industry knowledge. The non-compete. We're going to spend some real time on this one because this is where the the the absurdity really, really lives.
Speaker: And number five, they are buying the word mutual. Irony alert here for you. They fired you, but but they want you to sign a document saying this was a mutual decision.
Speaker: Why would they do that? Why would they do that? Because a mutual separation means that you can't claim it was discrimination. The word mutual is not about fairness.
Speaker: It's about legal cover, also known as covering their ass. This is the part that makes me want to throw the the document across the room.
Speaker: let Let me ask you something. If you are not truly adding value, if your role is being... eliminated if your performance somehow doesn't meet their standards, why do they need a legal document to stop you from working for a competitor?
Speaker: Why? Think about that. if If you are as replaceable as they're implying, what are they afraid of? The answer?
Speaker: It's fairly simple. They're not afraid you. you They're afraid of what you know, your skills, your your relationships, your 20 or 30 years of of industry terrain knowledge.
Speaker: The very thing they just told you they don't need any anymore is the thing that they're spending legal fees to keep out of a competitor's hands. Both of these things can't be true either. Either you bring value or or you don't. And if, and if they're trying to restrict you where you work, you add value.
Speaker: End of story. End of story. Now, let me tell you what happened to my friend. he He took that separation agreement document straight to and employment attorney.
Speaker: It cost him a ah few hundred dollars for the review. The attorney read through it and found actually an overly aggressive non-compete clause that would have essentially prevented him from from working for for any competitor with ah a huge geographic radius and for an excessively long period of time.
Speaker: he He had never signed a non-compete before. this this This was completely brand new. it It popped up in the in the in the final meeting. They introduced it for the first time in the separation agreement.
Speaker: Not during the employment, not when he was hired, but when they were firing him. That is not protection.
Speaker: That's punishment. and And here's where this gets interesting. His attorney pushed back. pushed back, said that the non-compete was unreasonably broad, said that the the release of claims was overly sweeping, said the severance amount was was highly questionable and not fitting to the years of service.
Speaker: And you know what happened? The company came back with a revised agreement. Non-compete was was reduced to a shorter acceptable period than ah and a far reduced geographical radius.
Speaker: Severance increased, and a mutual non-disparagement clause replaced the one-sided gag order. And he didn't get everything he asked for, but but he got a lot more than was on that paper in the first place.
Speaker: Because here's the thing that most people don't realize. The fact that they handed you an agreement, it means that they're worried about something. They're worried about you. that that That worry is actually, it's your leverage.
Speaker: Now for the over 50 worker, this this isn't just about principle. When you're 55 and you've spent many years in an industry, ah a non-compete, it doesn't just limit your options.
Speaker: it It can end your career, period. you You can't just pivot. You can't just learn to code overnight or some some some other alternative.
Speaker: they're They're not just restricting a job. They're restricting your entire professional identity. And that matters. Companies don't present these as separation negotiations.
Speaker: They stack them into one document, one deadline, one standard package. And that's intentional. Now, let me show you how that stack works against you.
Speaker: First, there's the the urgency trap. We need this thing signed by Friday. never Never mind that you're that you're over 40 and you're legally entitled to 21 days to review it under US federal law.
Speaker: The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act. it's It's not a suggestion. It's a requirement. But they don't tell you that.
Speaker: They hand you the document on a Tuesday and say Friday. and And when you're scared, you don't think about asking if the deadline is even is even legal.
Speaker: Second, there's this generosity frame. We're giving you eight weeks of pay. It sounds generous, right? Until you actually do the math.
Speaker: but's Let's say 22 years, eight weeks of of severance pay. That's about 1.4 days of pay for every year of service. And in exchange, you're waiving every legal claim that you could ever hold against them.
Speaker: This is absolutely not generosity. This is a transaction. Maybe you can even call it extortion from certain perspectives because that is what the time pressure and the the dangling severance payment amount to.
Speaker: Third, there's the the complexity wall. 12 to 20 pages of dense legal language designed to exhaust you into signing, designed to make you think Oh, I don't understand this, so so I'll just trust them and sign it.
Speaker: But don't trust them. They have lawyers, and you need one too.
Speaker: Fourth, there's the isolation play. This is confidential. Don't discuss this with anyone. Let me give you an irony alert here.
Speaker: Telling you to keep your secret is often itself a violation of the labor law because you have the right to discuss the terms and conditions of your employment and your separation with your colleagues.
Speaker: But again, they're betting that you don't know that.
Speaker: Here's what i want you to do. Seven things. Pull out your agreement and and walk through these by one. by one Number one, check the clock.
Speaker: if If you're over 40, you get 21 days to review the document by law, minimum 45 days. If this is some sort of a group layoff and seven days after you sign, you can still change your mind.
Speaker: If they pushed you to sign faster, the age discrimination waiver may already be invalid for them. You have rights built right into the timeline itself. So use them.
Speaker: Number two, find the non-compete in the agreement. Did it exist before today? if If you never signed a non-compete during your employment and and now they're introducing one at the stage of the separation agreement, that's just pure leverage.
Speaker: Push back. Push back, negotiate, to negotiate the duration down, negotiate the geography down, or or negotiate it out altogether. And by the way, states like Washington State, they just banned employment non-competes altogether in March 2026. In California, they they basically consider them as more or less unenforceable.
Speaker: The national trend is moving against these clauses. Use that. Number three, you need to read the release.
Speaker: what exactly What exactly is it that they're that you're waiving? Is it your your employment claims or or is it any and all claims known or unknown?
Speaker: The broader the language, the more it's worth. and And if you have a potential discrimination or retaliation claim, don't automatically sign away that that right just for a few weeks of pay.
Speaker: Number four, spot the the offset clause. Does your severance drop or stop when you find a new job? So some some agreements, they'll reduce your payments dollar for a dollar.
Speaker: You find work in four weeks. they stop paying. That clause saves them money. It does nothing for you. Make sure that you cross it out.
Speaker: Number five, check for the COBRA or or the lack of COBRA. Are they going to pay your health insurance? Are they going to continue it? Or is the agreement absolutely silent on COBRA?
Speaker: if If it's not in writing, assume that it's not in there. COBRA can cost $2,000 a month for the average family coverage.
Speaker: Make this explicit. Make sure it's in there. Number six, look for the the cooperation trap. Does the agreement say that you must assist the company after your departure? Things like like like litigation for for investigations for knowledge transfer?
Speaker: That his is unpaid labor. indefinitely at their convenience. If they want your cooperation, they can pay for it.
Speaker: And then finally, there's number seven, count the money. Severance should reflect three different things. it It should reflect your your years of service, the claims that you're waiving, and the restrictions that you're accepting.
Speaker: if If it only reflects a couple of weeks of pay and and you're giving up everything else, that math, it just it just doesn't work. Don't sign math that doesn't work for you.
Speaker: Here's what I'd like you to to do. if If you have a separation agreement sitting on your desk, on your kitchen table, or it's in your email box right now, don't sign it today.
Speaker: Instead, take it to an employment attorney. what One who represents employees, not companies. The employee side. It's going to cost you a couple of hundred dollars, maybe five or six hundred.
Speaker: for for a really thorough review and maybe even multiple reviews. The clauses that you're about to sign away, they cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars and lost wages and lost claims and lost freedom to work in your own industry.
Speaker: My friend spent $600 on that attorney review. He got increased severance, and a narrower non-compete, and a mutual non-disparagement clause instead of a full-on gag order.
Speaker: That $600 brought him thousands in return. It's not an expense. I wouldn't consider it that way. It's an investment.
Speaker: You're not required to sign anything the day they give it to you. Not Tuesday, not Friday. Not without understanding every single line. Because companies are counting on you not knowing what's in that document.
Speaker: But now you know. And if this episode has helped you see all of this, share it with a person who needs to hear it. One person who's who's sitting at their kitchen table right now staring at ah at a 12-page separation agreement.
Speaker: Send this link to them. Because we don't face this alone. We face it together. Youth runs fast, but age knows the terrain.
Speaker: I'll see you next time.
