How I negotiated my severance during a layoff

How I got an extra $14k with one email.
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I’m Lily, a product designer (UX) in San Francisco. With no connections, I hustled and broke into Silicon Valley after arts school. My story has been featured in Apple News and Business Insider.
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[@dpc316]

Great advice, thank you for shedding light on strategies after getting played off.

[@MoonChildLife]

This is such a good video, thank you so much !

[@derek400004]

Personally I don't think it's a good idea to assume your manager is your best ally, because FWIW the layoff could've come from him/her - especially if your manager did not give you any hints about this coming soon. That said, severance is 100% negotiable and don't let anyone tell you otherwise - I've been in this position myself and managed to raise it from 4 weeks to almost 16.

[@aey2579]

How did you negotiate

[@derek400004]

@@aey2579 List your accomplishments, all the extra hours you worked, awards if any, strong performance reviews, no prior warnings if that is also true, so on.

[@masha3365]

Hi Derek, how did you negotiate? Could you please share about your experience?

[@Designalily]

If your manager doesn’t help you, it’s incredibly hard to get better severance package.

[@derek400004]

In my case, my manager was the one who decided to fire me recently because I had filed a complaint against him some months ago, when he was not my manager (our orgs merged). I knew the worst was coming and so had prepped a long paper trail of top performance reviews, won some internal awards, and got great internal feedback from 9 people including those from other orgs. I also spoke with an employment lawyer and made it clear to the company what they did was considered potentially retaliation. My case may not apply to everyone, so best do your research and go in there armed with the biggest stick you can build for yourself.

[@wendychan6195]

Great video!

[@AsiaThinks]

Can you share more details on how you approached asking your manager for help? You mentioned telling them that you signed a lease etc. Did you directly ask them to advocate for you in your negotiation?

[@JK-ni7gp]

Good info

[@Designalily]

Thank you! Hope this helps :)

[@illluminate7806]

Thank you

[@vincentnnyc]

5:30...how is your mom able to prove that the company is eliminating her role to hire a new younger cheaper person? usually company are very discreet about this because like you said they can be sued for ageism. so i called bs on this story.

[@meropale]

I'm thinking of hiring a lawyer so I know what is going on.

[@actezla]

Not much useful content here other than negotiate. No specific tactics or reactions.

[@JesusFollower596]

You must be slow 🤦