You are a young employee and you are highly productive at work. Since you graduated from college, you've been getting promotion after promotion, and your bosses love you . We talk about salary, but not about duration. You are frequently approached by recruiters. These recruiters promise you opportunities with 40% salary increases on top of your performance bonuses.
As an employee, you obviously have your value in the job market, but we will focus on your legal value to your current employer. You will find that your employer owes you more than you owe them.
You have just turned 30 and are in your 7th year of service with your employer. Since the beginning of your career, you have had a meteoric rise. However, for the past 18 months, you have felt that the new management team wants a change in leadership in your department.
Last year, your salary, including your annual bonus, reached $385,000 and your intellectual contribution to your employer earned them millions in fees or investment over your 7 years of service.
Your employer meets with you and offers you $50,000 to reach an agreement to end your employment.
Let's start by qualifying the end of the employment contract: in this case, the end of the employment contract is consensual. In other words, you agree to terminate your contract for an indefinite period.
A leader meets with you and in the current context, the company's management has chosen another internal candidate for the position you coveted and several promising recruits are growing, just like you did before. Your employer then announces the end of your employment contract, without serious reason, and offers you $30,000.
The end of your employment contract is not the result of a consensual decision. Your employer terminates the employment relationship.
In addition to the indemnities provided for in the Act respecting labour standards, your employer's offer, in connection with the second scenario, refers to the notice period. The notice period is the famous “two weeks” used in everyday language. In reality, the expression “I gave my two weeks” refers to the fact that you have announced to your co-contractor that you are exercising your right to unilaterally terminate your employment contract of indefinite duration by giving him your notice period. An employer can terminate your employment contract without serious reason by giving you a notice period. You will understand that, in offer # 2, the $30,000 equals the notice period . However, how do you quantify the monetary value of the notice period due to you?
The monetary value of the notice period is quantified, in particular, using the following criteria
:
o The nature and importance of the employee's function within the employer;
o Has the employee given up another job in order to acquire it initially;
o Age and mobility in the labour market;
o Number of years of service with the employer and experience of the employee;
o Ease or difficulty of finding the same or similar occupation;
o The weekly salary.
Let's go back to offer #1: when the parties, by consensus, decide to terminate the employment contract, the parties owe each other nothing. In reality, the $50,000 offer is an incentive by your employer to get you to terminate it, while in offer # 2, the employer wants to terminate the contract without your consent and tries to quantify the damages you could claim from him in order to be compensated for his contractual fault .
We see every situation as an opportunity. In the first scenario, your analysis should focus on how the employment contract is terminated. In this regard, if the parties agree to terminate the contract, you lose your weight in the reciprocal power struggle with your employer. The only time this agreement is a win for you is if your analysis leads you to the conclusion that the notice period to which you are entitled is less than $50,000. Otherwise, it is better to refuse to terminate the contract by consensus and to force your employer to terminate the contract unilaterally by giving you a notice period in consideration of the above analysis criteria. With respect to offer # 2, it is in your interest to analyze your value and maximize the notice period due to you. During this transitional period, don't forget that you have obligations related to your work.
