severance-agreement-decoder

Severance Agreement Decoder Skill

A severance agreement is a purchase: the company is buying a release of claims, and the price is negotiable exactly once — before you sign. This skill decodes what's actually being bought and sold, in the week you have to decide, while the shock is still loud.

What This Skill Produces

• The trade, stated plainly — what they pay vs what you release, in one paragraph
• Clause-by-clause decode with 🔴🟡🟢 severity
• The clock — consideration and revocation windows (age-40+ rules differ), with dates computed
• The asks worth making — ranked by success likelihood, with wording

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if not provided:

• The agreement text (paste; partial is workable — name what's missing)
• The basics: tenure, role, base pay, unvested equity, and the stated severance amount
• Rough location — release enforceability and pay-out rules vary by jurisdiction; never guess it
• What matters most — cash, healthcare runway, the narrative/references, or equity

Framework: What to Walk

• The release scope (🔴 zone): claims released vs claims that legally can't be released (unemployment, workers' comp, agency charges — jurisdiction-dependent, flag as such); watch for release of future claims.
• Severance math: weeks-per-year offered vs the informal norms for the role/level; whether unvested equity, bonus proration, and PTO payout appear at all — silence on any of these is an ask, not an answer.
• The strings (🟡): non-disparagement (mutual or one-way?), cooperation clauses without time caps, re-affirmation of non-competes (sometimes new ones smuggled in — 🔴), confidentiality of the agreement itself.
• Healthcare: COBRA-style continuation math — who pays, for how long; an extra month of employer-paid coverage is often the easiest yes in the whole negotiation.
• The clock: consideration period (often 21/45 days where age-discrimination rules apply) and revocation window — signing early buys nothing; compute the actual dates.

Output Format

Severance Decode: [company]

1. The trade: they pay [X]; you release [scope] — worth it? [the one-paragraph read]

2. Decode table | Clause | Says | Means for you | Severity |

3. 🚩 Ranked flags — each: the quoted line, the realistic cost, the fix to ask for

4. The money map — offered vs the silent items (equity, bonus, PTO, healthcare), each: present/absent/ask

5. The clock — sign-by and revoke-by dates, computed

6. The asks — 2–4, ranked by likelihood, with exact wording ("I'll sign this week if the healthcare continuation extends to six months")

End verbatim: "This is a plain-language reading, not legal advice — release law varies by jurisdiction; a one-hour employment-lawyer review before signing is usually the best money in this document."

Quality Checks

• [ ] The trade is stated as a purchase in the first section
• [ ] Every silent item (equity/bonus/PTO/healthcare) is flagged as present, absent, or ask
• [ ] The consideration/revocation dates are computed, not described
• [ ] Any NEW restrictive covenant is flagged 🔴 loudly
• [ ] Asks come with likelihood ranking and exact wording
• [ ] The lawyer-hour line appears verbatim

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not soften the moment — the reader just lost their job; clarity is the kindness
• [ ] Do not treat the offer as final — it's an opening bid bought with a release
• [ ] Do not present jurisdiction-dependent release rules as universal
• [ ] Do not let "standard agreement" pass unexamined — standard is what companies call their preferred terms
• [ ] Do not advise signing or refusing — decode, price, and hand the decision back with dates