How to get the most out of your layoff

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

This is not a tragedy, but a natural process. Take control of your emotions and defend your rights.

Most people are extremely negative about being fired. This attitude is a relic of the Soviet past, when people were fired only for theft or drunkenness, and therefore those who quit were treated like lepers. Firing is now part of any business. In different countries, from 30 to 50% of all layoffs are caused by Workforce Turnover Around The World on company-initiated layoffs.

The list of reasons for dismissal has expanded significantly, and some of them are independent of the employee:

• The company no longer needs that role.
• The company needs such a role, but now it requires a different skill set.
• The person is burned out, has lost interest in work, and therefore does not work as well as before.
• Someone has appeared more suitable for this role.
• Relationships with management or colleagues did not work out, and so on.

If you get fired, you don't have to act out a drama. This is not going to help yourself. Instead, let's discuss how to get the most out of the situation.

What rights do an employee have upon dismissal

In total, there are three types of dismissal:

• on their own initiative;
• on the initiative of the company without conflicts;
• initiated by the company in conflict.

For the first option, everything is very simple: you work two weeks and get compensation for the unused vacation.

In the third case, you can hardly count on anything other than compensation for the vacation. This is an option for dismissal for causing harm to the company: from damage to property to damage to the company's image or disclosure of confidential information.

In this article, we will look at the second option: how to behave if you are fired without conflict.

The world practice is compensation in the amount of from a week to a monthly salary for each year worked in the company. For example, if you have worked for two years, then the average market conditions are compensation in the amount of two weeks to two monthly salaries.

However, the labor codes of many countries of the former USSR provide for compensation in the amount of two monthly salaries and a warning no later than a month before dismissal in the event of a reduction in position.

Therefore, you can expect that the employee will be paid at least three salaries. But is it really so? Let's figure it out.

How to leave and maintain a warm relationship with the company

Most of the dismissals initiated by the employer are extremely negative: often with tears, resentments, minor mischief and a break in relations. It's all because of the natural reaction of people to changes, which can be graphically depicted as follows:

Experience shows that after being fired, people find jobs better than their previous ones. This happens for various reasons: they were not appreciated before, their salaries were not raised, they were not developed, and in the new company everything is from scratch.

Companies rarely make an effort to mitigate the effects of layoffs. But this does not mean that you yourself cannot change the situation. Try one of the following:

• Chat with a career counselor. In this way you will understand that there are many roads in front of you.
• See a psychologist. This will relieve emotional stress.
• Throw a party with your friends. This is also a great emotional release, and you will feel the support of loved ones.
• Please update your resume according to our recommendations. Realize how cool you are!
• Take a couple of days off and get out of town: you need a reboot and a change of scenery.
• Sign up for courses you've wanted to take for a long time. Prepare yourself for a new position or even a profession.
• Remember how you successfully survived a force majeure situation earlier.

Why is this all? Below we will show you how to get the most compensation from the company, but you can do it with your emotions under control.

What amounts and in what cases does the company pay

Here we will rely not on the Labor Code, but on the actual practice of companies.

Compensation for unused vacation

There are many rules and approaches, but the market practice is this: unused vacation is carried over from year to year and is subject to compensation upon dismissal. All unused vacation days are multiplied by the average daily earnings in the last 12 months of work. Average daily earnings is the amount of salary accrued for the year, divided by 12, and then by 29, 3 (this is the average number of calendar days in a month).

If now your salary is $ 1,000, and six months ago it was $ 500, then the average earnings per day are calculated as follows:

(6 × (1 000 + 500)) ÷ 12 ÷ 29, 3 ≈ 25, 6.

Let's say you've accumulated 17 days of unused vacation:

17 × 25, 6 ≈ 435.

Salary for the current month

Less advance payment. The company will calculate the number of days worked and the number of working days in a month. Divide the number of days worked by the number of workers and multiply by the rate - this will be your amount. For example:

(14 ÷ 22) × 1 000 ≈ 636.

Bonuses and bonuses

Someone pays them upon dismissal, while others do not. The usual market practice is this: if the date of the planned payment of bonuses and bonuses falls on the date after the dismissal, do not pay. You will be lucky if the company meets halfway and pays or it turns out to be finalized before the payment date. By the way, in companies most often the highest turnover begins immediately after the payment of the annual bonus - people are waiting.

Promised project bonuses

If you were promised bonuses for a project that you have implemented partially or completely, be sure to discuss receiving all or part of the amount.

Salary or bonus arrears

If it is present, then it is customary to pay in full.

Compensation

If you are laid off, it is market practice to notify one month in advance and pay two salaries. Someone does not notify for a month and pays three salaries. Here, companies usually want to save money, so they can offer just one salary in the hope that the employee will agree.

If you are fired for ineffective work (or they just tell you that), then usually nothing is paid from above, except for vacation compensation and salaries for hours worked. But, perhaps, it will be possible to agree on compensation in the amount of at least one salary.

We hope these tips will not only keep you on the nerve of a layoff, but will also improve your career.