Redundancy, Leaving Your Job, and Exit Packages: Your Options and How to Negotiate
More and more of the people who book a first call with me arrive with a similar document open on their laptop. Sometimes it is a termination agreement. Sometimes it is a voluntary redundancy offer, or an invitation from HR to a "consultation meeting" whose outcome they already know. Quite often there is a signing deadline a few days away, and they are trying to make sense of it on their own.
When clients come to me now, they have usually searched online first. What they find is a statutory calculator for one country, a law firm page written for employers, or an article about severance that does not apply where they live. Very little explains the whole picture in plain language: what your options are, what a generous package actually looks like, and where there is room to ask for more.
So I decided to write it myself. This is an educational piece rather than legal or tax advice, and I would always encourage you to speak to an employment solicitor and a tax advisor before you sign anything. My hope is that it gives you the vocabulary and the steadiness to have a better conversation.
Redundancy, Voluntary Redundancy, and Exit Packages
Redundancy (as it is referred to in most countries but USA) means the role is no longer needed. It happens when a business restructures, closes a site, merges teams, or decides it needs fewer people doing a particular kind of work. Legally, the role goes away and the person is affected because they were in it. Most of your legal rights follow from that.
There are a few routes an exit can take:
Compulsory redundancy. The company selects roles and the people in them leave. In Ireland and the UK, the employer has to show the redundancy is genuine and that the selection process was fair and transparent, which is why the consultation process matters so much.
Voluntary redundancy. The company announces it needs to reduce headcount and invites people to put their hand up. The terms are usually set out in advance as a number of weeks' pay per year of service, and the company can still turn down an application if it needs to keep that person.
Mutual separation or settlement. An individual agreement to part ways, often used when a role is changing, a relationship with a manager has broken down, or both sides simply want a clean exit. Everything in it is negotiated.
Voluntary exit programs. Some large organizations run these ahead of formal redundancies, offering a package to anyone in a defined group who wants to leave, before any roles are selected.
An exit package is everything you receive when you leave. People tend to focus on the headline number, but a package usually has several parts, and each one is treated differently in law and in tax:
the statutory redundancy payment, which is the legal minimum
any ex gratia or enhanced payment on top of statutory
notice pay, whether you work your notice, are placed on garden leave, or are paid in lieu
accrued but untaken holiday
bonus, commission, and equity that has been earned or is about to vest
benefits such as health insurance, pension contributions, and outplacement support
One thing worth knowing early: once you accept a voluntary package and sign the agreement, it is very difficult to challenge later. The time to ask questions is before you sign.
What a Generous Severance Package Looks Like
I will use Ireland as the main example, since that is where I am based, and then look at how other countries compare.
The statutory minimum in Ireland is two weeks' pay for every year of service plus one extra week, and you need at least two years of continuous service to qualify. The catch is that weekly pay is capped at €600 for the calculation, which is the equivalent of €31,200 a year. The statutory payment is tax-free.
That cap is why the statutory number feels so small to anyone on a corporate salary. Take someone with eight years of service earning €120,000:
Statutory redundancy: 17 weeks at the €600 cap, so €10,200.
An enhanced package at four weeks per year, uncapped: 32 weeks at roughly €2,300 a week, so around €73,800 on top of statutory.
That is a difference of more than €60,000 for the same person with the same years of service, and it depends entirely on what the employer chooses to offer.
According to Eurofound's database, Irish employers commonly negotiate ex gratia payments of between two and seven weeks' pay per year of service, and the standard public sector package recommended by the Labour Court is five weeks per year including statutory. Some multinationals publish their schemes. Perrigo's Irish program, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, paid six weeks per year of service on top of statutory, with no €600 cap on the enhanced part. Irish employment lawyers have advised tech companies to pay well above statutory, partly because unfair dismissal claims in Ireland have a relatively good chance of success.
The better packages I see usually include several of these:
Weeks per year above statutory, with no cap on salary. The single biggest number in most packages.
Full notice pay, either worked, on garden leave, or paid in lieu.
Bonus paid pro rata for the part of the year you worked, rather than forfeited because you will not be employed on the payout date.
Equity, through accelerated vesting or a leaving date that falls after the next vest.
Health insurance continued for a set number of months, sometimes for the whole family.
Pension contributions, either continued for a period or paid in as a lump sum.
Outplacement or career coaching, paid for by the employer.
A contribution to your legal fees so you can get independent advice on the agreement.
Practical items such as keeping your laptop or phone, and an agreed reference.
Tax often catches people out. In Ireland, the statutory element is tax-free, but anything above it is taxable once it goes past certain reliefs. The basic exemption is €10,160 plus €765 for each full year of service, and there are two alternatives, the increased exemption and the Standard Capital Superannuation Benefit (SCSB), which can be worth more depending on your salary and pension. There is a lifetime limit of €200,000 on tax-free termination payments across your whole career. Notice pay and holiday pay are taxed as normal income. If your package is large, a short session with a tax advisor before you sign can change what you actually take home.
Garden Leave, Notice Pay, and Other Kinds of Leave
The way your notice period is handled can change your timeline, your tax, and what you are free to do next. These terms get used loosely, so it helps to know exactly what each one means.
Working your notice. You stay in your role until the end date. In Ireland, statutory minimum notice runs from one week to eight weeks depending on service, and your contract may give you more. You are also entitled to paid time off in the last two weeks of notice to look for a new job.
Garden leave. You are still employed and still paid, but you are asked to stay away from work. You usually cannot start a new job or contact clients until it ends. Garden leave keeps your benefits running and can push your leaving date past a bonus or vesting date, which can be worth a significant amount.
Payment in lieu of notice (PILON). Your employment ends immediately and you are paid what you would have earned during the notice period. You are free to start something new the next day. In Ireland, a PILON paid under your contract is taxed as normal earnings.
Sabbaticals and career breaks. Usually unpaid, sometimes offered as an alternative to redundancy when a company wants to reduce costs without losing people. Check how a break affects your service, because in Ireland a career break does not count toward the years used to calculate your tax-free exemption.
Leave you are already owed. Untaken annual leave has to be paid out. If you have parental leave or other family leave available, think carefully about timing before you agree a leaving date, and get advice if you are pregnant, on leave, or about to go on leave when a redundancy is announced.
People often treat the notice period as time to get through. I think it can be useful time, with pay still coming in and no obligation to perform, to rest, reflect, and work out how you want to talk about what happened before you start interviewing.
If You Want to Leave: Can You Negotiate a Package?
If you resign, you are generally entitled to nothing beyond your final salary, accrued holiday, and anything already earned under your contract. There is no statutory redundancy because the role still exists, and most enhanced schemes only apply to roles the company has decided to remove. In Ireland, leaving voluntarily without just cause can also lead to a disqualification from Jobseeker's Benefit of up to nine weeks.
That said, a resignation and a negotiated exit can start from the same place: you want to go. Whether there is room for a package depends on what is happening around you.
If a restructuring is coming. When a team is about to shrink, someone who wants to leave can save the company a difficult conversation with someone who does not. In a voluntary program you simply apply. Before one is announced, some people quietly tell their manager or HR that they would be open to being considered if the role is affected (for example, "If there are changes coming to the team, I'd like you to know I'd be open to a conversation about an exit."). It is worth thinking about the risk first, because once you have said it, your manager will see you differently.
If your role is changing significantly. A new reporting line, a relocation, a big change in scope, or a demotion in all but name can open the door to a mutual separation rather than a resignation. A solicitor can tell you whether the change gives you leverage.
If the relationship has broken down. Where there is an ongoing grievance or a dispute, both sides often prefer a settlement to a long process. This is a conversation to have with legal advice behind you.
In countries that build it in. France has a formal route for exactly this, the rupture conventionnelle, a mutual termination where the employee receives at least the statutory severance amount and keeps access to unemployment benefits. Germany has a similar practice through termination agreements (Aufhebungsvertrag), and in Japan a negotiated resignation is the usual way companies reduce headcount at all.
A package on resignation is the exception, and it usually happens when your leaving is a win for the company too. It helps to think about what problem your exit might solve for them before you raise it.
When performance is part of the picture. The most common version of this I see is around performance. If you are on a performance improvement plan, or you can feel one coming, and you already know you want to leave, a negotiated exit can suit both sides. Managing someone out through a formal process takes months of documented meetings, review periods, HR time, and a manager who is distracted from the rest of the team. If it is not handled carefully, it can also end in a grievance or an unfair dismissal claim. For many companies, paying a few months' salary for a clean, agreed exit is cheaper and faster than all of that, and it lets everyone move on with their reputation intact.
The conversation might sound something like this: "I've been thinking about the feedback, and I'm not sure this role is the right fit for me long term. Rather than spend the next few months on a plan, would you be open to talking about an agreed exit?" I would get advice before you have it, because what you say can affect how any later process plays out (for example, whether the company could argue that you resigned).
Netflix made this a policy. Netflix is probably the best-known example of a company building this into its culture. Managers apply a "keeper test": if someone were leaving for a similar role elsewhere, would the manager fight to keep them? Those who would not be kept are given a generous severance package so the team can find someone better suited to the role. Co-founder Reed Hastings has said the company offers a minimum of four months' severance in the US and above-average packages in other countries, and that a large package makes it easier for managers to act. The approach has its critics, and some employees describe feeling like they are constantly auditioning for their job. The logic underneath it is one I think applies more widely: when it is clear a role is not working, a generous and quick exit is often kinder to both sides than a long, painful process.
How Different Countries Handle It
I coach people across many countries, and one of the most common moments of confusion is when colleagues in the same company, doing the same job, receive very different packages because they sit in different legal systems. A quick comparison of the statutory floors:
The numbers differ a lot. The principles hold almost everywhere:
Statutory is a floor. It is the minimum the law requires, and in most corporate settings the conversation starts there.
The employer is paying for certainty. Most enhanced packages come with a release of claims. The employer is paying for a clean, quick exit with no risk of a legal dispute. Your leverage comes from how much that certainty is worth to them.
Process matters. Consultation periods, fair selection, and the right notice are protected in most of Europe. A rushed or unfair process changes the conversation.
Different parts of the package are taxed differently. Statutory, ex gratia, notice, and holiday pay rarely sit in the same tax bucket.
Get everything in writing. A verbal promise about a bonus or a reference is worth very little once you have left.
Where Redundancy Is Hard: France, Germany, and Japan
In some countries an employer cannot simply decide a role is gone and give notice. The law makes compulsory redundancy slow, expensive, and open to challenge, so companies lean heavily on voluntary departures and negotiated exits instead. If you work in one of these countries, that shifts a meaningful amount of leverage toward you.
France. An economic dismissal has to be justified by the abolition of the position or a refused change to the contract, and an employee who thinks the reason does not stand up can take it to the labor tribunal (Mondaq). The employer also has to look for redeployment options across the company and group before notifying anyone. A company with at least 50 employees that plans 10 or more economic dismissals within 30 days must put a job protection plan (PSE) in place, with measures to limit the number of dismissals and help people into new roles, and the plan is checked by the labor administration. In practice, many companies run a voluntary departure plan alongside or instead of forced exits.
Germany. Once you have been employed for more than six months in a business of a certain size, the Dismissal Protection Act requires a redundancy to be socially justified. The employer has to compare employees and select those who need the least protection, taking into account things like age, length of service, and dependents (Global Workplace Insider). Where there is a works council, it must be consulted, and in larger restructurings it negotiates a social plan that sets compensation for everyone affected. An employee has three weeks to challenge a dismissal in the labor court, and because that risk is real, around half of dismissal lawsuits in 2014 ended in a settlement (Fisher Phillips).
Japan. Japan has no statutory severance formula, but it has some of the strongest protection against dismissal anywhere. Courts apply a four-part test to redundancy dismissals: a genuine business need, real efforts to avoid dismissal, a fair selection process, and proper consultation with employees (Monolith Law). In one well-known 1983 case, the Supreme Court voided a dismissal because the employer had made no attempt to recruit voluntary leavers first. As a result, companies almost always start with an early retirement program, offering a special retirement allowance that commonly ranges from several months to a year of salary on top of the usual retirement allowance. Lawyers advising multinationals describe a negotiated voluntary resignation as the most common, and often the only workable, way to reduce headcount there.
What these three have in common is that the employer carries most of the risk. A voluntary offer in Paris, Munich, or Tokyo is usually priced to persuade you, because the alternative for the company is a long and uncertain process.
Mass Layoffs in Tech, Consulting, and Elsewhere
Much of what I hear from clients in the last few years comes from large, company-wide cuts rather than individual exits. In September 2025, Accenture reported that its workforce had fallen from 791,000 to 779,000 in three months, as part of an $865 million restructuring. Its CEO said the firm was exiting people it could not retrain for the skills it needed in AI, and the company booked about $615 million in restructuring charges in a single quarter, mostly severance, while still planning to grow headcount in other areas.
Tech has followed a similar pattern in 2026. By early August, Layoffs.fyi had counted 125,759 tech workers laid off this year, already more than the 122,606 recorded for all of 2025. Amazon announced 16,000 corporate cuts in January, and Meta announced it would cut around 10% of its workforce, roughly 8,000 roles, in May. Many of these companies have named AI investment as a reason. Ireland feels this more than most, because so many of these companies have their European headquarters here, and the country has accounted for around 40% of EU tech redundancies in recent years.
If you are caught in a mass layoff, a few things work differently:
The cash terms are usually standardized. When thousands of people leave at once, the company sets a formula by level and country and rarely moves it for individuals. Your energy is often better spent on the parts that are personal to you, such as your leaving date, vesting, bonus, and benefits.
There is a formal process. In the EU, collective redundancies trigger consultation with employee representatives before notices go out. In the US, larger employers owe 60 days' notice under the WARN Act. These timelines can give you more time than the first email suggests.
You are not alone in it. Colleagues in the same position sometimes share the cost of an employment solicitor to review the standard agreement once, which is far cheaper than each person doing it separately.
Selection still has to be fair. Even in a large program, in most of Europe the criteria for who goes need to be objective. If you were on leave, recently raised a concern, or cannot see why your role was chosen, ask how the decision was made.
It says very little about you. When a company removes a whole layer, a function, or a percentage of headcount, individual performance is often not part of the decision. I mention this because so many of the people I work with carry a layoff as a personal verdict for far longer than they need to.
How to Negotiate Your Package
A JustAnswer survey found that 58% of people who received a severance package did not negotiate it. Younger workers were far more likely to push back than people over 43, which matches what I see: the more senior and loyal someone has been, the more uncomfortable it feels to ask. Some of these strategies will apply to you and some will not, depending on whether your package is a fixed voluntary scheme or an individual agreement.
Do not sign in the room. Thank them, take the documents, and ask for the deadline in writing. You might say: "Thank you for walking me through this. I'd like to take some time to review it properly with an advisor. Could you confirm the deadline by email?" Deadlines can often be extended if you ask.
Ask how the number was calculated. Request the scheme document or the policy behind your offer. "Could you share how the figure was calculated, and whether it's based on a standard policy?" If it is a published voluntary scheme, the cash multiple may be fixed, but other parts of the package often are not.
Map everything you are giving up. List your bonus, commission, unvested equity and the next vesting date, pension, health insurance, holiday, and any training or relocation clawbacks. People are often surprised by how much sits outside the headline figure.
Negotiate the whole package. If the cash is fixed, ask about the leaving date, garden leave, pro rata bonus, health insurance, outplacement, and legal fees. "I understand the weeks per year are set. Given my next vest is in March, could we discuss a leaving date after that, or an equivalent payment?"
Ask for a contribution to legal fees. In Ireland and the UK this is common, and in the UK an employee must have independent legal advice for a settlement agreement to be binding. A good employment solicitor will often find something you missed.
Think about structure as well as size. The split between statutory, ex gratia, notice, and pension contributions affects your tax. So can the timing of payments across tax years. This is a conversation for a tax advisor, and it is worth having before you agree the wording.
Agree the story. How will your departure be announced? Who will give you a reference, and what will it say? When can you update LinkedIn? They tend to matter once you start interviewing.
Keep it calm and in writing. Emotion is completely understandable, and it is better processed with a friend, a partner, or a coach than in the negotiation itself. Follow every conversation with a short email confirming what was said.
If something in the process felt off, for example the selection criteria were unclear or the timing coincided with leave or a complaint you made, mention it to your solicitor. It may change your position significantly.
What I Have Seen in Practice
Names and identifying details are changed, but I have seen each of these situations play out, some of them more than once.
The vesting date. A director at a global software company was offered a place in a voluntary redundancy program. The weeks per year were fixed, and HR was clear there would be no movement on cash. When we sat down and mapped everything she was giving up, the biggest item turned out to be a block of shares due to vest seven weeks after her proposed leaving date. She sent HR a short email: "I'm happy to accept the terms of the scheme. Would it be possible to serve part of my notice as garden leave, so that my end date falls after the March vest?" They agreed within a day. That one change was worth more to her than any realistic increase in the ex gratia payment.
The same-afternoon signature. Someone I worked with years ago signed their agreement the same afternoon they received it. They had been with the company a long time, they were hurt, and they wanted it over with, which I completely understood. A week later they realized their annual bonus, due to pay out a few weeks after their exit date, was not included. By then the agreement was signed and there was nothing anyone could do.
The person who asked. In the same restructuring, another colleague took the full review period, spoke to a solicitor, and then sent HR a one-page email with three specific requests: a pro rata bonus, six months of outplacement support, and a leaving date after a certification course the company had already paid for. The tone was warm and practical, and two of the three were granted.
The health insurance. A client in his fifties, a senior manager at a large pharmaceutical company, came to me focused entirely on the lump sum. When we talked through what was actually keeping him up at night, it was his family's health cover, a child about to start university, and a gap in his pension. He went back and asked for twelve months of continued health insurance and an employer pension contribution in place of part of the cash. The total cost to the company was roughly the same, and the package fit his life far better.
Putting your hand up. A senior account lead at a global media company was trying to decide whether to apply for voluntary redundancy. Her team was being restructured, and she suspected her role would change regardless. We looked at it from three angles: the voluntary package on the table at four weeks per year, the risk that a later compulsory round might come with less generous terms, and what she actually wanted the next two years to look like. She applied, was accepted, and used three months of garden leave to set up a small consulting practice before her final day.
Two countries, one role. A client leading a team split between Dublin and Munich found that her German colleagues were negotiating through a works council and a social plan, while the Irish team was offered a fixed voluntary scheme. The numbers looked very different, and at first it felt deeply unfair. What helped her was seeing that the logic underneath was the same in both places: a statutory floor, an employer paying for certainty, and room around the edges for leaving dates, benefits, and support. She stopped comparing headline figures and focused on the parts of her own package she could still shape.
A 2026 Zety survey of 1,000 laid-off US workers found that 59% did not believe their layoff had been handled fairly. I suspect part of that comes from how alone people feel while they are deciding.
Before You Sign
If you are reading this with an offer in front of you, take a breath. You probably have more time and more options than the first document suggests. Losing a role you have put years into is a real loss, and it is completely normal to feel angry, relieved, frightened, or all three in the same afternoon.
There is no need to have every answer today, as long as you understand what you are agreeing to and give yourself the chance to ask.
So before you sign, it might help to sit with a few questions. What exactly am I giving up, beyond the salary? Which part of this package matters most to my life right now: the cash, the time, the health cover, or the reference? Who could look at this with me, an advisor, a coach, a former colleague, a lawyer, or someone who has been through it? And when I look back on this in a year, how do I want to have handled it?
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