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

[BlazingSunsh]

A friend I have got closer to over recent months told me that she fell out with her employer, a law firm, and was paid 70k if she agreed to leave without further fuss. She was on 90k at the time. The dispute was over her workload/what she had been given and how she felt she had been blocked to progress. The company disagreed but wanted her to leave so apparently offered this? I find this totally unbelievable?! 70k with no tax? Do these things happen?! If so I want to try it as that’s basically two years of my entire income after tax!

Having managed PIPs, these are very stressful time consuming - you have to do a lot of paperwork, meetings etc. paying people to fuck off can be a much easier, cheaper and better option. Especially when the role is key to business needs and you need a decent replacement.

That doesn’t ring true. It’s extremely rare to get an award like that from a tribunal and no law firm would settle at that level

But there wasn't a tribunal.

What do you mean by 'at that level'? 70k is a lot to some companies and very little to others.

Yes, part of the agreement when it happens at my company, the company pays for you a lawyers of your choice - so they can’t say they were forced to agree or were unfairly pushed to sign the agreement.

She was referring to the post that said someone got their life time salary paid which ran into millions. Not the £70k op.

Being paid out by the insurance for an injury is very different to the settlement agreements being referred to in the thread.

Yep.

Someone I know was caught taking drugs in their office. £90k later he was released from his contract.

It's common in some industries. As a lawyer I have been involved in the process of paying off someone suing the firm. And also had my own claim settled.

It's not a fun process. Most people getting these payoffs will have been bullied or discriminated against to get to that point, and leaving process itself is immensely stressful. And then you are without a job.

For me the ‘fuss’ was to work my ass off for 11 years and then have an attempt to demote me whilst on maternity leave. This included a challenging few months of legal negotiations.

I think if you set yourself with this as your goal without legitimate reason - you may not get far and risk being let go for poor performance. No offence but I wouldn’t want to employ someone whose goal is to get let go with lots of money!

If she hasn’t negotiated an agreed reference then she isn’t much of a lawyer. That is standard practice.

70k is low - I know people who have had 6/7 figures to go quietly. They’re pretty high up tho.

Do you meant couldn't?!

Very common and for a lot more than the figures mentioned. In education your entire career as a teacher counts towards the calculation for “redundancy” even if you’ve only been with your current employer for a year or two.
In DH’s world £250k would not be unusual. However it depends on why you left how easy it will be to find another job. Go to a tribunal and win or lose it can be difficult afterwards.

yes, very senior managers can get about 1million in payouts

My sibling recently got sacked as they voiced opinions about wrongdoing doing to friends of powerful people in the company. When they had a legal letter sent to the company stating they had evidence and would report them, they bargained £4m compensation. They are now retired and under 50.

People try this literally all the time. I work in HR. £70k is nothing. People are incredibly litigious these days and it’s usually cheaper to pay someone off than defend a tribunal even if they are in the wrong.

I don’t think so. It’s basically the same thing. They just pay you out to stop the workplace injury claim going anywhere.

ops friend saying she was prevented from progressing and bullying is pretty much what my friend was claiming her injury for. Being bullied ect affected her mental health so she can’t work.

You’ve lived a very sheltered life. My father was given £65,000 after he threatening to take them to a tribunal. I was paid off after my manager seemingly sacked me after I had a pregnancy loss.

Good friend of mine got £15k (half their salary) to leave quietly after being caught legless drunk at work, drinking heavily at work and borrowing company property (wearing expensive designer clothes for nights out then returning them)

All these posts are making me feel terrible for accepting 40% of my annual salary to leave when 8 months pregnant and sign an NDA. That was including maternity pay... I didn't have the energy to fight it and I was told we'd probably not win at tribunal even though there were several of us. Small company though. Feel so angry at their behaviour. They really made me suffer.

Try it in Switzerland - an acquaintance was let go for being incompetent and they had to pay her for 2 years.

Yep the Council gave me my step-up 35

All well and good until you try to get another job and you're out or work and your previous employer won't provide a reference.

There isn't a bigger red flag for a prospective employer, and whatever payoff you get now, unless you are lucky you will lose more than that in the long-term.

99.9% of settlement agreements include an agreed reference

Yes, ex employers agreed to state it was a whole restructure with shift changes and voluntary redundancy option. There are nearly always non-disclosure clauses drawn up by solicitors so OP might want to advise her friend to be careful how many people she is telling.