To think she’s lying? Or do companies really do this?

My dh was also given a retention bonus before the company was sold on. It was the company that bought it out, which pushed him out as I said upthread.

My husband was offered a retention bonus after a number of senior people left his company and they wanted to put a stop to it.

He signed a three year deal that totaled £180k- think it was something like £40k in year one, £60k in year two, and then £80k in year three. All taxable.

He works in finance and deals with accounts worth billions that generate millions for his company, so a no-brainer basically.

Not the done thing in my industry, sadly.

I knew a man who was on gardening leave, 6 months paid, as he was going to work for a competitor. He started the new job, after a few weeks was told they didn’t have enough work, and was put on gardening leave for another 3 months. He was on £70k. Quantity surveyor. I was rotten jealous.

10 months salary in a regulated profession sounds right. Go quietly of your own volition. " I think Lawyer A (or Accountant B, or Dentist C) gave me bad advice, he was so crap you fired him 6 months later, of COURSE i've got a good case against your firm..."

The other situation - I was made redundant on the day before my mat leave started. Obviously I had a watertight discrimination case. But they paid me enough (18 months salary) that the compensation I could have sued for woukdnt cover the legal, childcare, and hassle.

This is a game best played by those with previous successful experience.
I came across someone who had made over £1 million from the same manoeuvre carried out seven or eight times.

Yep I’ve heard of this know a few who were lucky enough to get it! Usually a pay you off to go quietly and yes it it taxed , not sure on the exact amounts

I have seen a £50k settlement paid to silence a complete liar!

Yep i know someone who got 30k

Happens all the time with ALOT higher amounts

Gardening leave means you can't work for another employer during that time - it's part of the agreement.

Yes, my ex boss was formerly a union leader.

We paid a woman a settlement even though we fired her for gross misconduct because she was a mouthy twat who would have taken it to tribunal (as well as a lot of other spurious claims).

We were a small company, and the amount of senior exec time it would have consumed was easily going to be more expensive than a fuck off agreement.

Dh was paid about that 5 years or so ago. His former company decided to push him out as he no longer fitted their business model. He’d been there for 10ish years. They did this with several people before him and some after. He was the most senior to be pushed out.

I was once made ‘redundant’ so that my line manager didn’t have to write up my annual appraisal in which I had detailed how badly they had treated me.

I had gardening leave before being offered a financial settlement and writing my own reference. My solicitor who witnessed the NDA laughed at the amount of the settlement and said that it was because they knew they hadn’t a leg to stand on.

I couldn’t wait to get out of the place, but still experienced a sense of loss and depression.

In a job like that you know where the bodies are buried. ALL the bodies.

This happened to my friend when she tried to quit a job. They offered her a mega bonus to stay. I think it was about the annual salary!

The flip side is if the person doesn’t take the compromise offer, and doesn’t have enough dirt on the company, they will find themselves on a PIP and end up leaving with next to nothing.

Yes this does happen in law firms.

Very common in the City and Law firms. In the City it’s not uncommon to get well over 12 months salary and some gardening leave and an agreed reference.

Mind you people in the City would normally hire a lawyer to negotiate for them then get the firm to play the legal fees too.

I’m an employment lawyer and I deal with Settlement Agreements daily.

The lowest few were for £1. The highest was £600k, which involved getting pre clearance from HMRC for most of the money to be paid tax free.

But generally speaking, 6 months net is a common amount. 70k wouldn’t be tax free and the company must have had some legal liability to go that high.

Yes it’s quite common. Though I think as PPs say over 30k and it’s taxed - same as redundancy

This happened to a friend of mine, also a lawyer. Raised a complaint of discrimination (he was leader of the company’s LGBT society). Paid off a decent amount, but his name was mud in the industry for a few months and it took him nearly a year to find another position. Not all sunshine and roses when you’re dealing with the rich and powerful unfortunately.

I had one of these, luckily for me I'd been running the payroll for years so I knew the value of previous 'compromise agreements'. I was supposedly made redundant but walked away with three years salary, the first £30k was tax-free but the rest was taxable.

We paid nearly £500k to our head of legal to get her out. To this day I'd love to know what she had on the company

I wouldn’t be going anywhere for less than 6m salary - 12m if I’d got dirt on my employer.

Yes, happened to dh. He had to agree not to go to an employment tribunal which would have found in his favour but by that point had had enough so took the money. It was taxed though.

In my company the payment is one year salary, plus paid for the amount of the notice period plus any accrued leave. So on a 70k salary 90k is about right.
But only the first 30k is tax free