The meeting ends, the paperwork appears, and somewhere in it is a signature line. Almost everyone signs faster than they should — not because they have read it and agreed, but because signing is the only action available in a morning where nothing else is.
Read the shape, not just the total
Two offers with the same headline number are not the same offer. A lump sum is runway you control from the day it lands. Salary continuation keeps you on payroll — which in most states also keeps you off unemployment while it runs, and which can stop early the moment you start somewhere else. The interaction with unemployment is here, and it is worth understanding before you evaluate the total.
Check when it is paid, whether it is contingent on anything, and what happens to it if you find work in week three.
What is actually negotiable
Ask in writing, ask once, ask specifically, and ask pleasantly. The person you are asking is usually not the person who decided, and a narrow request is far easier for them to carry upward than a general objection.
- Additional weeks or months of pay — the most common ask, and refused more politely than people expect.
- A period of employer-paid health cover, which is often granted more readily than cash and can be worth more than an extra week.
- Treatment of unvested equity or an extended exercise window, where that applies.
- Payout of accrued and unused leave, which may already be owed to you depending on where you work.
- An agreed reference, or agreed wording about the departure, which costs the employer nothing.
- The date itself — a later separation date can extend benefits cover by a full month.
The release is what is being bought
Severance beyond anything already owed to you is nearly always exchanged for a release of claims — you agree not to bring legal action arising from the employment. That is a real thing to give up, and it is the reason the document exists at all.
Read what else travels with it: non-disparagement, confidentiality about the terms, cooperation clauses, and any non-compete or non-solicit whose enforceability varies considerably by state. If you have a live concern — discrimination, unpaid wages, retaliation, anything raised internally before the layoff — that concern is precisely what the release covers, and it should be looked at by a lawyer before you sign, not after.
The time you may already be owed
If you are forty or older, federal age-discrimination law generally requires that you be given at least twenty-one days to consider an agreement waiving those claims — forty-five days where the layoff is part of a group programme — and seven days after signing in which you may revoke it.
If that period applies to you it is yours. Take it. Nobody is served by a signature on the first morning, and a request to use the time you are entitled to is not a hostile act.
Model the offer before you accept it
The only honest way to compare two offers, or to know what an extra fortnight is worth, is to put each one into the runway and look at the date it produces. Four weeks of continuation and a month of paid COBRA may well beat a larger lump sum, or may not — it depends on the burn, and the arithmetic is quick.
General information, not legal advice, and not a substitute for a lawyer reading your agreement. An hour with an employment attorney is the cheapest part of this entire process and routinely the most valuable.