Fired, Down-Sized, or Laid-Off: What Your Employer Doesn't Want You to Know About How to Fight Back

Rating:
Summary: A Great Source of Empowerment
Review: As a hospital staff employee with job security concerns, I read Mr. Sklover's book after it was recommended to me by a nurse. I would recommend it to others, at all levels, without question. In this book Mr. Sklover provides a clear and concise guide to help anyone develop a proactive stance in severence negotioation, and makes it so abundantly clear that anyone can do this sort of negotiating for him- or herself. The format is consumer friendly, and the book prepares the reader for the relevant issues, whether or not advance notice of job loss has been already provided or, as in my case, if you're just concerned that "notice" may be given to you in the future. This book provided me with a sense that I can cope with this terrible experience I'm facing and that I might even be able to "turn the tables" around. Mr. Sklover reminds us that we must combine our internal and external lives to produce powerful change. The book is a real motivator, because even if you're on the right track and just sit there facing a job loss, you'll just get run over. Mr. Sklover shares his insight that no- one can make you feel inferior or powerless without your consent. Hats off to an empowering book-for everyone who needs to feel less powerless at a very vulnerable time. If you have a gut feeling about job insecurity, put it on your own "Must Read" list. Its really such a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Practical guide to losing your job
Review: I am in-house counsel to a major corporation and have had a great deal of experience with downsizing and termination and found this book to be a treasure-house of good advice on negotiating severance packages. The writer, a well-known severance lawyer who has represented many employees, presents a practical, sensible approach to negotiating the best severance package possible. He is a proponant of civilized negotiation as compared with testosterone-driven war-mode litigation and his advice is sound. Unlike many lawyers, he addresses the emotional side of losing a job and has many good suggestions for dealing with hurt pride before going to the negotiation table. In addition, he does not propose running to a lawyer on the day or termination. Rather, the book could be used by an employee to assist in negotiating his/her own package. The book is easy to read, written in plain English, and well organized. The index contains invaluable forms for severance agreements and letters. I can't imagine a better book on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: This is the ONE to buy
Review: If you buy one book to help you if you're fired, I recommend this one without hesitation. I found the advice and recommendations invaluable. In a coherent, sensible approach, Mr. Sklover's experience shows through. At times he seemed to read my mind as he methodically covered my concerns as well as introduced topics that had not occurred to me. He translated the legal jargon into plain English, rendering the advice both understandable and useful. The list of more than 100 negotiating points is alone worth the price of the book. I think "this is the one" on this topic.

Rating:
Summary: Downsized in Atlanta
Review: JUST GREAT; should be called "THE SEVERANCE BIBLE"! I purchased Mr. Sklover's book, read it, and have put it to good use in my own efforts to negotiate the terms of my severance package. I found the book extremely informative, easy to read and understand, comprehensive, and perhaps most importantly, highly motivating. Being downsized is not an easy experience. But this book gives you a place to start, a "handle" to hang on to, an understanding of the best dynamic to establish, and many, many practical tips about what to ask for, how to ask for it, and what to expect your employer to respond with. I've recommended it to all of my friends who are being downsized with me, and I recommend it to you...without reservation. Buy it; you'll be happy you did.

Rating:
Summary: Essential information helpfully presented
Review: The problem is that when we have a job we tend to invest in the illusion of security. We also feel disloyal to our employer if we prepare for the time of separation.

The funny thing is that when the whack comes (and to often it is as unforseen as club to the back of the head) you can bet that the company has prepared very carefully every aspect of our severance package before they apply that hit to the sweet spot on your noggin.

Very few people have the clout to get an employment contract let alone negotiate up front for a separation arrangement. For most of us we live in an "at will" world. The author points out that this "at will" isn't necessarily as once sided as our employers would have us believe.

They rely on the shock of the moment, our lack of preparation, and our shame for losing our job to streamline us into signing away rights and getting the heck out of dodge. It isn't in their interests to give you time to think and prepare, and, frankly, when you are laying off 1,000 or 10,000 people you simply can't enter into separate negotiations with every one of them. However, I can tell you that in the UK employees are routinely given employment contracts as they are hired.

This is why every employee should read this book today. Prepare and think about the ever more inevitable separation. Empoyees need to be on as equal a footing with their employer as they can; given current laws and the limitations of economics. We need to have more open eyes and be less sentimental about our jobs.

This book is a great first step or two on that path. Just as profits are made when you purchase an asset (buying at the right price) - not when you sell them, the basis for your separation (which you should accept as inevitable in some non-specified future) is laid when you are hired. We need to be smarter when we go into these situations and realize the planning and, well, practiced sincerity (masked insincerity) that employers now use during hiring, throughout the term of employment and during termination.

They aren't bad people, necessarily, it is just that they are prepared for what is happeneing and most employees are not. The message of this very helpful book is "Get Prepared!".

It isn't that they are all bad people; it is the nature of the current business and legal climate that leads to much of this nonsense.

This book will provide a great morale booster and provide some thoughts that can help even a newly terminated employee create a decent plan of counter-attack. Better to use this information and take positive action than be pushed downstream like so many cut trees.