Sharing a story I remembered after reading a similar post here.
About 10 years ago I started working as an engineer, and over the course of 2 years I became project manager. A short time after that the “oil crisis” happened, and over 800 people in my company were let go, including me and almost my entire department.
Every single one of us were offered a basic severance package consisting of 3 months pay, if we wave the 3 months notice and walk away immediately. All we have to do is sign a non-compete contract and a contract saying we quit and wave our 3 months notice and our re-hire privilege. almost everyone took the deal, me included.
Now here is the kicker. People were let go according to seniority, as per the laws and regulations, and parts of my job still had to be done. This means that the company asked me to stay on 1 extra month and train the two people replacing me. These were old dinosaurs who already worked there, getting close to retirement age. Their position had been cut, but they had seniority so they get to take over parts of my job. Im talking dinosaurs that can hardly use Outlook, and this is a corporate environment in the oil and gas industry.
I told them that I would gladly do it if they pay my full wage for the month.
They tell me “Of course, you are already getting 3 months, so you are basically being paid triple!”
I tell them that no, I get 3 months pay for my old job here, that I already signed away.
They counter with “Yeah, so you get full pay for the month, and the following 2 month” thinking its sorted
It takes me almost 3 days of meetings with HR, branch managers and even the CFO to get them to understand that I have already gotten the 3 months severance, and will get it even if I sit at home watching cartoons. If they want me to work for an extra month they have to pay me for an extra month, up front. They simply cannot comprehend how I have the audacity to ask for MORE money when they are already being so nice to me and paying me my contractual severance. It finally clicked for them when I explained that I am in fact not an employee anymore, and would require a 1 month contract if they want me to do the training.
In the end they agreed to pay me 2 weeks on top of the severance pay. I imagine they were surprised when I did not show up for the last two weeks of that month they wanted me to work. When they called I simply told em “two weeks pay gets you two weeks work.” and politely declined to work out something else.