If you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re looking to settle out of court with your employer, for the love of everything that is holy, NEVER tell them first what you want/how much you want. Our legal asked this former employee how much he wanted to basically make the problem go away, to which he promptly replied $20k. Problem is, before we met with the person we had determined we could go much, much higher. Never give the first number first. If asked, say, what did John Doe Company have in mind, or “what can John Doe Company do to help me.” This forces them to throw something out which you can then push higher.
I know, I know, this sub hates HR so I’m sure I’ll get flogged in the comments (and a lot in my field truly deserve it), but thought I’d share so no one else falls for this if you’re ever in the same situation.