How to Negotiate Salary vs. Severance with Jordan Sale

In the latest episode of Negotiate Your Career Growth podcast, I sat down with Jordan Sale, founder of pay equity startup 81cents (now part of teamrora.com) to discuss the ins and outs of both salary and severance negotiations. 

Regarding job offer or salary negotiations, Jordan says: 

"There's so much more at stakes with negotiation than just the dollars. 

It's about: 

• Are you going to be respected in this role? 

• Is this a scope that's interesting for you? 

• Is this a level that makes sense for you to go in at? 

• In our kind of hybrid world, what is the mix (of work from home / in-office)? 

• If you're a working parent, do you have flexibility? 

Too often, candidates don't realize they have agency to make the offer better, whether that's in terms of comp or in terms of the role or walking away if it's not good enough for them." 

I wholeheartedly agree, because both research and my clients' experiences have shown it's often the intangibles -- and whether you're set up with resources to be effective and successful in your job -- that lead to career satisfaction. 

And let's face it: If you're unhappy in your job, no amount of money can fix that. In fact, Jordan says she's seen clients leave positions for which they negotiated a higher starting salary, because in the end they realized the job wasn't a good fit. 

Even though money is important, it's not the end-all, be-all of a successful negotiation. 

Lately, there's been more news of layoffs and that means folks are being offered severance packages, which is also negotiable. 

Jordan says, "Understandably so, for a lot of people negotiating a severance package, it's a stressful, challenging experience." 

Even though negotiating severance is a different kind of experience than negotiating starting salary, it is still very much negotiable. While negotiating an offer is about expanding upside potential, negotiating a severance is about managing downside risk. 

According to Jordan, there are several ways you can get creative in negotiating severance: 

"Typically severance is paid in lump sum amounts based on how much you earn. Like two or three months' of salary. You can negotiate that number up. 

But you can negotiate other things as well. For example: 

• Keeping computer, desk or other hardware that can have decent monetary value 

• References, referrals 

• Accelerated vesting schedule for equity compensation (This can be tricky because it requires board approval but it's possible when a group of employees band together to ask for the policy to be changed.) 

• Last date of work, or whether you're being laid off at the end of the month, so you can have healthcare coverage for that entire month 

Here's another example: A former client who was laid off was told that they were going to be promoted the next month and that their pay would go up with that promotion. 

They negotiated for the promotion to go into effect earlier so that when they were like applying for jobs they could apply at that more senior level. They also negotiated for the severance to be paid at the higher rate that they were about to be promoted into, because they had already been told what the raise was going to be." 

Beyond this, Jordan and I discussed other real client case studies, the impact of negotiating mindset, what NOT to sign and why, and so much more. 

To listen or read the full episode transcript, click HERE. 

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