Severance Pay

searching · February 2004

Our company is going thru (many) changes and one of them is replacing the Office Manager with an Administrative Manager... We are going to offer her 2 weeks severence pay. She's been with the company since 1991, and I was curious if other companies used years of service as a critera when calculating severance, or just the standard 2 weeks. Thanks for any input!

Evergreen · February 2004

I don't use a forumla, but I do have them sign a doc that says I will pay them the severence if they release all rights to any lawsuit. Just good protection these days.

Don D · February 2004

My opinion is that two weeks severence pay for a 13 year employee who is functioning as an office manager is an insult. Two weeks should be minimum and would be offered, in my experience, to employees who had been there six months to a year. I would recommend a minimum of a week for each year of service up to a maximum of two weeks for each year of service.

searching · February 2004

I agree, She has been a loyal and hard working employee of this company and I was hoping to be able to rally support to offer her more, hence this message - thanks!

Leslie · February 2004

We give two weeks per year of service...pretty generous stuff.

rad · February 2004

Same here...but we do have a cap at 15 years...

Rockie · February 2004

A week per year of service is generally the accepted norm.

HCCADC · February 2004

When my previous company closed down my branch, it was 2 weeks per year you worked. As an employee, I felt that was fair.

Don D · February 2004

Not anywhere I've ever worked. It's two.

HS · February 2004

I would say one or two weeks per year of service. You can always put a cap on the number of weeks given. This way you don't have a 20 year employee getting either 20 weeks or 40 weeks. You can also have two different package levels for exempt vs non exempt, or management vs non management. We do two weeks per year with a separate cap for management level than for non management level.

Carey · February 2004

My company gives no severance (except for executives). It's a horrible situation when laying off long term employees. I assume you've run all the traps with laying off the office manager and replacing her with someone else. Is the Admin Mgr younger? Is the Office Mgr not qualified for the Admin Mgr position?

Don D · February 2004

Very good questions! I also wondered if the change of title was not just a subterfuge for getting rid of someone for some other reason.

marc · February 2004

In most of the companies I've worked for, severance has been at the discretion of the CEO, the best I ever got was 6 months, the worst was 0. In our current company, there is no severance. Our not for profits just does not have the budget for it.

Severance Pay

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