Getting fired? Here is what you need to do to get a shit ton of money · Tech Workers Coalition&darr;Skip to main content<br>Table of Contents

Who this is for #<br>This guide is aimed at people who are at risk of losing their job due to alleged performance issues or a disturbed working relationship. It might still be useful for other cases (such as<br>long-term sickness), but those bring additional complexity, so I will leave them out of focus here. It does not apply to cases that would be a ground for immediate dismissal (like fraud).<br>Disclaimer: This document deals with legal issues and is intended to provide an<br>informational resource only. Tech Workers Coalition doesn't in any way provide legal advice, so<br>don't rely on this document as though it would constitute legal advice.

HR invites you to a meeting #<br>So, you&rsquo;ve been kicking ass in your role, but suddenly the walls close in and HR invites you to a meeting. In this meeting they either put you on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), or immediately tell you that they want you gone.<br>A word about PIP #<br>Let’s get PIP out of the way first. What you need to know is: even if you fail a PIP (and some people do survive PIPs), the company can’t fire you. They would still need to go to court, and a failed PIP is just a piece of evidence in such a court case. Out of all failed PIPs that end up in court, only 20% result in a judge granting the approval for the dismissal. So it is incredibly hard for the company to make a convincing PIP – it needs to be objective, measurable, demonstrate that you were given enough opportunity to improve your performance, etc.<br>If you are put on a PIP, cooperate with the company, but still highlight any things like unclear targets, unrealistic schedules, etc. The point is not to argue with the company, but have a paper trail for the court that you have voiced your concerns and they were ignored.<br>You&rsquo;re offered a settlement #<br>But let’s say you have failed PIP or it was not even offered, and now you are in a room with HR and hear something like:<br>“We are sorry this is not working out. We have a very strong case to dismiss you, and while we could go to court, we have decided to show appreciation for all of your hard work over the years, so we are willing to offer you this amazing settlement of 2 months salaries if you quit yourself now”.

keep in mind that HR is paid for misleading you<br>At this point the company wants you gone and you need to keep in mind that HR is paid for misleading you and taking advantage of you (every euro saved for the company is a euro that you are not getting). So you need to learn how to decipher HR-speak and understand what they are really saying. Luckily, it is super easy: you just reverse whatever they tell you and you get:<br>“We don’t care about you. We have no case to dismiss you and we don’t want to go to court, so here is the shittiest deal we could think of and we hope you take it”.

So &mldr; what do you do?<br>Why they offer you a settlement #<br>Now, and here is the key part, you need to understand why they are offering you a deal (vaststellingsovereenkomst). I mean, let’s imagine it’s a big company with a ton of lawyers. Surely they have gone to court hundreds of times before and have some kind of a repeatable internal process, right?

going to court takes a shit ton of time and generally the company will have a very low chance to win<br>The truth is simple: going to court takes a shit ton of time and the company needs to have a really, really strong case to win it. I’ve talked about PIP already, and other options (like disturbed relationship) are even harder for the company to win: they&rsquo;d have to show they have really tried all other options to fix the situation before trying to dismiss you (think 6 months of logs of various attempts to fix it). Bullshit restructuring like “we decided to restructure this department and want to fire only this one person” also won’t fly with the court or Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen (UWV).<br>So generally the company will have a very low chance to win if they want to fire you for a alleged performance issues or a disturbed working relationship. And even if they were to win eventually, the whole process would take a lot of time – that’s why you are being offered a deal.<br>Time is (literally) money #<br>Let’s talk about time before we finally jump back into our conversation with HR. Your worst case scenario (you lose in court) timelines are:<br>PIP, if they offer it (2 months min, 6 months for a proper one)<br>going to court (3-4 months)<br>your notice period (usually it is 1 calendar month, so anywhere between 1-2 months).<br>So if you do nothing and lose in court, you have like a 6 months paid buffer already, without taking any deals. You really need to understand and internalize this knowledge, because it will be a foundation for our negotiation strategy.<br>Back to our HR convo. Thank them for their offer. Say that you also would like to skip the court stuff and arrive at a...