For many, it’s the severance offered that makes them sign. If you’re about to lose your job, a few months pay, and free relocation back home if your visa is due to be cancelled is likely enough to make you sign something.
I’m not condoning it, at all. I think the practice is fucking disgusting, and have seen it wreck lives, but it’s a reality in many tech companies, including Google under Sundar.
But they’re not gonna offer severence to someone who quits, right?
The wording made it sound like he quit rather than got laid off.
My understanding is that while you’re 100% being terminated (and are ineligible for rehire) what you sign indicates that you’re actually volunteering to resign.
For more info on it, look up Amazon’s Focus and Pivot programs.
Laws will differ in different places, but I’m familiar with 3 categories of terminations:
- With cause (firing)
- Without cause (layoff)
- Voluntary (quitting)
When someone is terminated with cause or quits, they are not entitled to severance and they do not collect unemployment insurance. When someone is laid off, the employer is obligated to pay a severence package.
The Amazon focus and pivot program is interesting. That definitely looks like they’re bribing low performers to quit, and I smell an ulterior motive. Maybe it’s to get them to sign an NDA but I feel like it’s to avoid wrongful dismissed lawsuits. Although I suppose why not both?
