hired amd laid off 2w later

[Dizmo]

VA-
I went through a grueling interview process with 2 top level excutives, HR and a manager. Each one brought up the upcoming merger. All 4 including HR assured me that this position was approved dispite the upcoming layoffs and all I would have to worry about is benefit changes. Quick background..My former company where I had been for 12 yrs were eliminating my team so I had told this new company numerous times I do not want to go from one layoff to another. Long story short..they handed me severance papers yesterday with the minimum severance package since id been there only 2 weeks. I passed over 2 job offers and numerous interviews , not to mention my 12yr severance package with the other company. I have a meeting with the head of HR in a few days. Is there anything I can say or do to increase my severance? Is what they did legal? Assuring me the position was safe...giving me an offer letter and then laying me off?

 

[davew128]

Exactly what law do you think was violated?

 

[HC1432]

Is there anything I can say or do to increase my severance?

Probably not but you can certainly try. They are under no legal obligation to do so if that is what you mean.

Is what they did legal? Assuring me the position was safe...giving me an offer letter and then laying me off?

Absolutely.

 

[Proserpina]

VA-
I went through a grueling interview process with 2 top level excutives, HR and a manager. Each one brought up the upcoming merger. All 4 including HR assured me that this position was approved dispite the upcoming layoffs and all I would have to worry about is benefit changes. Quick background..My former company where I had been for 12 yrs were eliminating my team so I had told this new company numerous times I do not want to go from one layoff to another. Long story short..they handed me severance papers yesterday with the minimum severance package since id been there only 2 weeks. I passed over 2 job offers and numerous interviews , not to mention my 12yr severance package with the other company. I have a meeting with the head of HR in a few days. Is there anything I can say or do to increase my severance? Is what they did legal? Assuring me the position was safe...giving me an offer letter and then laying me off?

You're lucky to get any severance.

 

[Chyvan]

Apply for unemployment. Hopefully, VA allows you to quit a job and take a new job, and collect when you are let go shortly thereafter.

http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2015/nonmonetary.pdf

The table on 5-4 says it's possible, but I've found mistakes in these publications before.

From the footnote "VA - only if new work is deemed to be “better”." You got let go from this new job after two weeks sounds like a qualifying separation, BUT you'll be denied UI for quitting your 12-year job unless you show that taking this new job was better in some way for you than staying at your prior job. You'll have your work cut out for you getting UI.

Get HELP if you need it. Don't think you can pull this off alone if you don't understand what exactly is happening to you. You'll have a compound adjudication, and it confuses people and many screw up for no other reason than ignorance.

 

[commentator]

When a company is having mass layoffs, buyouts or closures, I always encouraged people strongly to stick around, not to try to avoid the painful experience of being without a job even for a second by jumping on the first horse that came by. I suppose this particular horse sounded pretty good to you, especially with the old company downsize coming up and looming over you. But there is NO WAY that anyone who is interviewing you is obligated to give you completely accurate information about the potential for changes to the job on down the line. Especially where there is an upcoming merger or buy out, there is always the possibility that what has happened to you will happen. The people who hired you at the new company may have been sure they were giving you honest and correct information based on what they knew at the time. They wanted you for the job they thought they had and were going to continue to have.

But in my older and more skeptical years, I'd have been very leery of accepting a position with any company that was having an upcoming merger. These guys who interviewed you might very well not have had their jobs within a short time. They may or may not have known about what was going to happen, I'd bet not. What happened to you was just pretty much a fully legal, "thems the breaks" bad guess about the future that you made by accepting this job. And you are quite lucky you are getting any severance at all. File for unemployment, move on and look into other positions.

 

[Dizmo]

Thank you! I guess..it is what it is