When a person gets fired, should they ever sign anything the company gives them?
Never. No. Don’t do it. Hell no. And so on.
If you are fired, and it’s the kind of job where they want papers signed. Get legal advice. If you don’t know any barfly lawyers, use your state gov web site to find free legal advice.
Even if you are perfectly happy to be fired, don’t sign the first set of papers just to be a thorn in the side of the man. (I’m only half joking.)
I guess it depends. I was layed off from my last job and got a severence package which included one year’s pay, paid medical benefits for one year, matching 401k for one year, and other related crap, all in all a nice package. The catch was that I had to sign a paper pretty much promising not to sue. I signed that sucker, took the money and ran out of there, skipping and hopping and thinking about one year of goofing off.
Sadly less than a month later I was offered a job, pretty much an offer too good to refuse, so my goofing off only lasted one month.
What was the question again? Oh yeah, I don’t know, sometimes it pays to sign the papers, other times, who knows.
Make sure you read them very carefully and when your sure you understand what they say, read them again.
If you have any doubts get legal advice. There are, unfortunately, unscrupulous (sp?) companies in the world.
So are you now putting that 11 months of windfall to good use?
The most relevant question here is: will signing benefit you in any manner, especially financially? If there’s no benefit to you at all in signing them, don’t sign - and keep whatever they gave you to sign, so that there’s no doubt that you didn’t sign it. If necessary (i. e., you think thaey will try to make a false claim that you have signed), arrange to have someone witnessing you refuse to sign it.
On the other hand, they may be offering you a fair amount of compensation in order to avoid legal complications, as in bayonet1976’s case. If you think it’s worthwile to take this option, make sure you are very clear exactly what rights you would be giving up before you sign. If necessary, an hour’s legal consultation is probably enough to sort this out.
Never sign anything in which you admit to or claim responsibility for potentially criminal acts. Never sign anything that could expose you to a civil suit, by the company itself or other parties, purely on the basis of facts claimed above your signature. Again, legal advice may be in order here.
In the case of a dismissal with cause, you are unlikely to be offered financial compensation; rather they may ask you to sign a statement of understanding stating the reasons why you were fired. There is almost never any benefit in doing so; since you’re going to get fired regardless, I advise against it.
If you are being asked to sign a statement that claims you have resigned on your own initiative, be aware that this can restrict your ability to collect unemployment benefits. Unless they are offering better compensation than yo would get from the Department of Labor, it’s probably not worth your signature. Likewise, if they are requesting that you sign a non-compete clause, it’s only worth it if you are compensated comfortably for the length of the non-compete agreement. Consider both points carefully.
Above all, don’t sign anything you haven’t read, and better yet, don’t sign anything you haven’t had a chance to sleep on. You may, as I said, want to consult a lawyer as well.
Some Guy said it all. You can also tell the HR rep that you’d like to show the papers to your lawyer first.
Never ever ever ever sign when they shove it in your face. Especially if its your first time. The bastards usually try to shock you and then take advantage. If you wait at least a day or two, you can usually negotiate something better. Show it to a lawyer.
You bet.