Fired, Downsized, or Laid Off: What Your Employer Doesn't Want You to Know About How to Fight Back (Paperback)

by Alan L. Sklover (Author) "I've participated in many, many negotiations of severance and buyout packages, in all sorts of companies, on behalf of all sorts of employees..." (more)
Key Phrases: severance negotiating, severance negotiations, continued salary payments, New York, Fundamental Task, Federal Express (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
The profession of law apparently has become so specialized that Sklover is able to bill himself as a "severance attorney," claiming primary ranking in the category. Regardless, earlier this year employment and labor attorney Steven Sack covered much of the same territory in a similarly titled book (Getting Fired: What to Do if You're Fired, Downsized, Laid Off, Restructured . . .). Sack also considered various forms of discrimination and the rights of employees, but Sklover focuses almost exclusively on negotiating the best severance package; therefore, libraries collecting in this subject area will find both titles worthwhile. Sklover describes how the negotiation process works, identifies emotional pitfalls, and tells how to work with an attorney. He explains what actually can be asked for and how to ask for it; he counters with requests the employer will make and suggests ways to respond. He advises what to do if negotiations fail and addresses "postnegotiation concerns" such as taxability of severance benefits, eligibility for unemployment insurance, and breach of agreement. Appendixes include sample forms and letters. David Rouse

Product Description
<div>All the legal facts, negotiating strategies, and coping tips anyone just dismissed from a job needs from an expert on employment law.

Job security has disappeared. Even in good times, people get the pink slip whenever cutting staff appears to be in the best interest of the company or those who run it. These days, everyone must be prepared to negotiate severance almost instantly.

Alan Sklover, an attorney with over 25 years of experience handling severance negotiation for employees, provides an insider's guide to the best approaches to getting a favorable settlement. With its wealth of information, easy-to-read style, and short chapter format, Fired, Downsized, or Laid Off has become the standard text for anyone who wants to know:

o What do standard severance packages include?
o Tips to keep self-esteem high and stress low through severance negotiations
o How to customize a severance package
o When to hire an attorney and how to use their services wisely
o How to turn job loss into an opportunity for a new career path, self-employment or early retirement

In these uncertain times, no employee will want to be without this book.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (January 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805060847
• ISBN-13: 978-0805060843
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,886 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Resource Book, October 16, 2000

By	"[e-mail]" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

Written in plain English. Deals with the legal basics, emotional scars, and what's reasonable to ask for. Even has a list of 101 things to possibly ask for. I needed these things very much, and found them in this book. Provides a good insight, too, into what negotiating with your ex-boss, and Human Resources, is all about. I never realized that they wanted something from me even more than I needed the extra severance from them! This book is highly motivating, too. I recommend it for anyone.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential information helpfully presented, September 10, 2002

By	Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

The problem is that when we have a job we tend to invest in the illusion of security. We also feel disloyal to our employer if we prepare for the time of separation.

The funny thing is that when the whack comes (and to often it is as unforseen as club to the back of the head) you can bet that the company has prepared very carefully every aspect of our severance package before they apply that hit to the sweet spot on your noggin.

Very few people have the clout to get an employment contract let alone negotiate up front for a separation arrangement. For most of us we live in an "at will" world. The author points out that this "at will" isn't necessarily as once sided as our employers would have us believe.

They rely on the shock of the moment, our lack of preparation, and our shame for losing our job to streamline us into signing away rights and getting the heck out of dodge. It isn't in their interests to give you time to think and prepare, and, frankly, when you are laying off 1,000 or 10,000 people you simply can't enter into separate negotiations with every one of them. However, I can tell you that in the UK employees are routinely given employment contracts as they are hired.

This is why every employee should read this book today. Prepare and think about the ever more inevitable separation. Empoyees need to be on as equal a footing with their employer as they can; given current laws and the limitations of economics. We need to have more open eyes and be less sentimental about our jobs.

This book is a great first step or two on that path. Just as profits are made when you purchase an asset (buying at the right price) - not when you sell them, the basis for your separation (which you should accept as inevitable in some non-specified future) is laid when you are hired. We need to be smarter when we go into these situations and realize the planning and, well, practiced sincerity (masked insincerity) that employers now use during hiring, throughout the term of employment and during termination.

They aren't bad people, necessarily, it is just that they are prepared for what is happeneing and most employees are not. The message of this very helpful book is "Get Prepared!".

It isn't that they are all bad people; it is the nature of the current business and legal climate that leads to much of this nonsense.

This book will provide a great morale booster and provide some thoughts that can help even a newly terminated employee create a decent plan of counter-attack. Better to use this information and take positive action than be pushed downstream like so many cut trees.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Source of Empowerment, June 14, 2000

By A Customer

As a hospital staff employee with job security concerns, I read Mr. Sklover's book after it was recommended to me by a nurse. I would recommend it to others, at all levels, without question. In this book Mr. Sklover provides a clear and concise guide to help anyone develop a proactive stance in severence negotioation, and makes it so abundantly clear that anyone can do this sort of negotiating for him- or herself. The format is consumer friendly, and the book prepares the reader for the relevant issues, whether or not advance notice of job loss has been already provided or, as in my case, if you're just concerned that "notice" may be given to you in the future. This book provided me with a sense that I can cope with this terrible experience I'm facing and that I might even be able to "turn the tables" around. Mr. Sklover reminds us that we must combine our internal and external lives to produce powerful change. The book is a real motivator, because even if you're on the right track and just sit there facing a job loss, you'll just get run over. Mr. Sklover shares his insight that no- one can make you feel inferior or powerless without your consent. Hats off to an empowering book-for everyone who needs to feel less powerless at a very vulnerable time. If you have a gut feeling about job insecurity, put it on your own "Must Read" list. Its really such a great book.