Exit Negotiation Resolved in Half an Hour

We were asked to attend an employment meeting with our client, the employee. The family owned company indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss a restructure/redundancy that “might” affect our client.

Our client had had a very good relationship with the owners of the company and they had been like family to each other; however, she had sensed that something had changed a couple of months earlier. It was hard for her to define what had changed as the change was subtle. One result was that she was convinced that the employer was using the possible redundancy as a means to force her out.

At the meeting we were professional but frank about the employee’s perception that there had been a change in the relationship and that there was suspicion about the redundancy process. The employer responded by asking what our offer was in order to settle the issues between the parties. While there weren’t any real, tangible issues, there was an underlying feeling and the employee was quite clear that she could not continue to work there. About half an hour after the meeting started we had agreement on an exit package. It was agreed that the employer would within two days pay a reasonable sum to the employee, and that the employee would finish work that day. The employer and employee hugged and the only remaining thing to do was paperwork, which we took care of.

It was satisfying to be able to quickly obtain a good offer for our client, while maintaining the good feelings that the parties had had for each other before the recent blip in their relationship.