As the title says, I found out this week that my department is being “restructured” and I'm being laid off from my salaried position at a small NPO. But as “a sign of respect and acknowledgement for the work I've done and my tenure” they're “graciously allowing me to work through the end of the year to help ease the transition.” It feels like I'm doing them more of a favor than they're doing me, honestly.
I have no incentive to continue working for this place apart from the two paychecks I'll get for December's work and have essentially stopped doing all work tasks that aren't directly requested of me by my boss.
I'd prefer 4 weeks of severance pay for December and my accrued PTO, than to stay on and work for them knowing I'm being laid off. I plan to collect unemployment afterward so I can't quit, and therefore either need to ride this out, have them pay a severance or fire me. My boss is an egomaniac who needs to feel like he's the most clever person in the room. He's also the type of person that uses language like “family” when talking about staff members, and can't separate personal from professional. Everything is a personal attack. So, how/ what do too have the best chance for getting the severance? Is honesty the best policy here? Or should I just keep my head down and ride it out while doing as little work as possible?