You are under no obligation to sign any papers offering confidentiality, or anything at all, when you are fired or laid off. Many companies try and get fired employees to sign NDAs and other types of agreements when they are terminated, even if no compensation is being offered. Just say no to any such attempts. What are they going to do, rescind the layoff? If the company is offering you severance in exchange for your signature it may be worth it to sign. You'll have to judge for yourself if the severance on offer is a sufficient bribe to justify your signature. This happened to me once, when I was fired from Microsoft. HR wanted me to sign a stack of documents on my way out the door. They weren't giving me any severance, so I just said "no thanks" and walked out. The HR lady just lamely mumbled that "everyone signed". No bolt of lightning struck me down, I just walked out the door and left. No one stopped me.
What if I don’t sign, do I get severance still?
If they are offering severance you will have to sign whatever they want to get it. You will have to decide if they are paying enough severance to make it worth your while to sign. The decision was easy in my case since Microsoft wasn't giving me a dime of severance, whether I signed or not.
Read the agreement. OP’s point is don’t sign if you’re not getting enough in return.
What did you gain by not signing at Microsoft?
He got to one up a HR lady for 2 seconds.
I didn't gain anything by refusing to sign. But I didn't lose anything either. I could potentially have limited my options to get future employment or sue them if I had signed. The confidentiality agreements could potentially have barred me from some jobs.
"everyone signed"
I confirm. Amazon asked me to “acknowledge” a paper when terminating me. I read the paper, and at the very end (after scrolling, cuz it wasn’t visible) it read something to the effect of “by acknowledging this, you’re releasing Amazon & friends from any liability due to Amazon colleagues talking about you”. This paper was different from the severance agreement and it didn’t have any associated compensation, so I didn’t sign then. Later down the road I signed it out of my own initiative because it was a condition to get a letter for PERM. I had an interest then. But it felt good not to “acknowledge” when it wasn’t necessary. Very shady from HR to disguise wording so you bite the bait. And the typical phrase “everyone else does it” is a staple of BS people from HR, car dealerships, etc.
wtf this is bullsh*t sorry they tried this on you
So companies are not required to give you advance notice as per the WARN low?
If they’re providing severance, you’re obviously gonna sign, even if they aren’t you’ll want to part ways in good terms because you may need recommendation from them for future jobs. So what I’m seeing is OP is a paranoid person who won’t do anything that’ll not benefit them
Kool aid lover detected.
I had plenty of recommendations from former colleagues, and had no trouble getting future work. I wasn't vindictive or mean, I just didn't sign.
OP, I think the title is a bit misleading though. It should be: make sure you read what you sign, and make sure you’re not waiving rights for free.
Also if you have to sign an agreement giving up your right to file a lawsuit against your ex-employer in order to receive the $$$ then that’s not severance pay, it’s compensation for you relinquishing that right. This makes a difference (in CA at least) in when you can start to receive UI.
This is an important detail most don’t understand. If it is a payment in return for signing a severance agreement with various terms and conditions, that is NOT a “severance payment” in the sense of what unemployment is asking about. (This is the case of Pivot / PIP termination action in nearly all cases). But, if the severance agreement is time based. E.g., company will make a severance amount paid out for a certain number of weeks or months after your termination date while you look for work, that is viewed as a form of ongoing employment-related income. This is what UI is asking about. (Which is quite often the case when you are part of a layoff or force reduction).
it would be amusing if they did rescind the layoff if you refused to sign.
False, this is horrible advice
Why?
Why? Explain why a terminated employee should sign an agreement if they are receiving no compensation?