[knotimpressed]

What were the details of paying $2000?

[jkingsman]

Not the commenter, but I would assume forgoing an exit bonus/severance payment that was contingent upon signing a non-disparagement agreement.

[jrockway]

Yup exactly. I got my retention bonus and 2 months pay and all that stuff without agreeing to anything, and they offered a little bit more to agree not to disparage them. I'm pretty chatty so decided it wasn't worth it ;)

[thaumasiotes]

When NCC Group fired me, they characterized the payment for a nondisparagement agreement as "severance", and didn't offer anything else.†

So now I'm free to tell people that they fired me with zero days' notice and zero severance. That's just the way they roll.

I find it funny that their nondisparagement policy specifically causes disparagement that otherwise couldn't have occurred.

† They also gave me an explicit reassurance that I shouldn't worry about my health benefits, because those would remain good until the end of the month. I didn't find this particularly reassuring, since it was Halloween.

[swyx]

2000 is a pretty low amount. presumably theyd have to spend way more than that to enforce it, so they would NOT spend it, in which case its free money that you shouldnt have turned down because it was way too small for a gag order

[jimmydddd]

I friend of mine was an MD advisor to a bio-tech startup. They wanted her to sign off on things that she didn't feel comfortable signing. I guess she wasn't too happy with them as she gave up a $30K severance so she could disparage them. :-)

[teaearlgraycold]

Sometimes the knowledge that they’re sweating after you reject the offer is worth quite a lot.

[swyx]

and maybe they change their behavior :) the sacrifice does have value.

[Thorrez]

>you shouldnt have turned down because it was way too small for a gag order

You're saying that if someone offers me a small amount of money I should accept it, but if someone offers me a large amount of money I should maybe reject it?

That sounds backwards to me.

[wavemode]

I think the idea is, assuming you have already resolved to disparage the company

in that case, rightfully you should not take the money regardless of the amount.

but, if it's a tiny amount of money (tiny enough to indicate that the company probably isn't going to bother coming after you in court) then you can maybe consider taking it anyway and accepting the miniscule risk

whereas receiving a vast sum of money would carry a much larger risk of legal action

[swyx]

yeah just game theory. their money was so small that it was meaningless for its intended purpose.

[fragmede]

Question is, how many zeros would it take to convince you otherwise.

[jrockway]

Some number, absolutely. I don't have that much integrity ;)

[DonHopkins]

As long as the first digit wasn't also a zero.

[fragmede]

Unless that was the strike price

[simonask]

As a European, it is absolutely WILD to me that this is legal.

[mytailorisrich]

Non-disparagement clauses are generally legal in Europe, too. In addition, defamation laws may apply to what is said/written about a company, so one should be careful in any case.

[rapnie]

> bonus/severance

bribe?