The offer isn’t just the number.

Read it like the company wrote it — because they did

A severance agreement is a trade: the company pays for certainty. In exchange for the package, you’re typically releasing legal claims, agreeing to non-disparagement, sometimes confidentiality about the agreement itself. Every term in that document was drafted, reviewed, and reused across many exits. You’re seeing it once. They’ve sent it hundreds of times.

That asymmetry is fixable — but only before you sign.

The parts people never think to negotiate

• The end date. Sometimes a few weeks’ difference crosses a vesting cliff, a bonus date, or a healthcare month. Moving the date can be worth more than moving the cash.
• A non-working notice period. Staying "employed" (not working) for a period keeps benefits running and lets you job-hunt as a current employee.
• Healthcare. Employer-paid COBRA months are a common, low-friction ask in the U.S.
• Equity. Treatment of unvested equity, exercise windows for options, and how the end date interacts with cliffs — often the largest dollar item in the whole conversation.
• The story. An agreed reference, an agreed internal announcement, "resigned" vs "position eliminated," mutual non-disparagement. Your next job may care more about this than the check.
• The release itself. What you’re waiving, what survives, and whether their obligations are as binding as yours.

The three mistakes that cost the most

1. Signing fast to make it stop. The discomfort is real; so is the review window. In the U.S., if you’re 40 or older, agreements waiving age claims generally must give you at least 21 days to consider — and companies build that clock in expecting most people not to use it.
2. Negotiating by emotion. "This is unfair" doesn’t move a company. Specific asks tied to specific facts do — dates, cliffs, precedent, risk.
3. Assuming nothing is negotiable. In a 2,000-person layoff, the formula may be fixed. In an individual exit, almost everything is a choice someone made — and choices can be remade if you ask correctly, in the right order, through the right channel.

Inside Edge provides coaching and education drawn from professional HR experience — not legal advice, and nothing on this page creates an attorney–client relationship. Employment law varies by state and country; for advice about your legal rights, consult a licensed employment attorney. See our Terms.