Location: CA
My company is having a layoff at the end of this year. They made an announcement, gave us letters in person, and sent a certified copy to my house.
Since the announcement, more people have left than management anticipated, and now they’re extremely worried about meeting a huge project deadline without the trained staff.
I was looking forward to the severance and an opportunity to find something else for multiple reasons I won’t go into. However, I’m one of the few people who is trained on a very specific process, and without admitting they made a huge mistake, they’ve approached me about doing an interview for an elusive new job at the company, but surprise, no one can tell me any concrete details about it.
My question is: can I say no, it’s not my problem you miscalculated your business needs and let valuable people go prematurely, according to the letter my employment is being terminated in December, and I want my severance?
Can they leverage my severance to get me to stay, or do they have to pay it? I have not received or signed an actual detailed severance offer yet, just notice.