Hey Kate, understanding that American policy may differ here, perhaps even state by state, a question - can one (safely) volunteer to be laid off, or would that be considered an implicit resignation and thus disqualify someone from severance?
Asking for a friend who’s definitely not me teetering on the precipice of corporate hell
Someone else
Entirely
I had this exact thing come up with me during the year I worked up in Canada. As an American, it threw me for a loop as I had never seen anything like it before...
Had an employee who was out for 3 months of Stress Leave. During his absence, we had a chance to temporarily promote someone into his role while he was out. The person we temp-promoted inherited a mess, but did a fantastic job and really turned things around.
When the guy came back from stress leave, we scheduled a meeting with him and his temp replacement to do a thorough turnover and update with him so he could resume his old role. During that meeting, the guy didn't take a single note and at the end of the meeting declared "Yeah, I don't think I want to come back, so I'd like a severance package instead." I almost fell out of my chair.
According to my Canadian HR people, this request wasn't out of the ordinary for them, and they recommended that I do it. For me, it was a first and there was absolutely no way I was going to agree to it. I viewed it as a resignation.
End of the day, he ended up getting 4 months severance. There's a long story behind that, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth, but it was probably the right decision. Take that for what its worth.
