Hi, my name is Alex Granovsky and I’m the managing member of Granovsky & Sundaresh. We’re an employment law firm in New York City with a specific sub-specialty with severance agreements.
When it comes to severance agreements, by far the question we are asked the most is: “If I negotiate my severance agreement, will my employer pull the original offer?” The answer to that question, quite simply, is probably not.
Let me break that down for you. Technically, when you renegotiate your severance, you’re rejecting your employer’s original offer and making a counteroffer. So, in fact, by the rule of law, you have killed the original offer.
With that being said, you’re not being offered severance because your employer is nice or doing you a favor or just handing you money.
Rather, severance is a contract. In exchange for x amount of money and other benefits, you are making a bunch of promises to your now former employer – most notably your promise not to sue them. Maybe also a non-disparagement. Maybe to not apply again. Maybe there are other promises. Cooperation comes to mind, but the point is, there’s an exchange here.
The likelihood that your employer will pull an offer that they just made to you – simply because you’re questioning the value of that exchange – is exceedingly slim. It doesn’t make sense from a monetary perspective.
I can also tell you that our firm has negotiated at this point thousands of severance agreements. We’ve helped scores of employees in New York City negotiate and understand their severance agreements.
While this is, by far, the question we are asked the most, it’s never happened. Not one employer has pulled the severance. We’ve had it threatened maybe twice, but the fact is, employers are offering severance because they want something. They’re not going to withdraw the offer simply because the employee is asking for more. They might not increase it, but the likelihood of withdrawal is very slim.
To summarize very quickly: technically, under the letter of the law, when an employee negotiates their severance, that employee has rejected their severance offer. They’ve done it. So, technically, the employer doesn’t even have to pull it off the table because the employee has done so themselves.
However, because of the reality and practicalities of the situation, this almost never happens. Absolute the rarest of circumstances, I don’t imagine that it would. With that being said, if you have any questions concerns, or you want to talk about severance, feel free to give us a call. There’s a link where you can reach us.