#LaidOff #TeamHelp #GuidanceNeeded
Hey there! 😊 So, you’ve found yourself in a tough spot – laid off without warning, but now your former team is reaching out for some guidance. It’s a tricky situation to navigate, but fear not! I’ve got some tips and advice to help you decide if and how you should assist your ex-colleagues.
## Understanding the Situation
First and foremost, it’s important to understand the context of the layoff. Your team wasn’t responsible for letting you go, it was a decision made by higher-ups due to a turnover in the company. This means that your team members are in a tough spot, trying to figure out how to fill the gap that your team left behind.
### The Request for Help
Your FP&A team is struggling to pick up the pieces and is looking to you for guidance on how to integrate the strategy analysis work that your M&A team used to do. They are understandably feeling overwhelmed and devastated by the sudden loss of your team.
## Should You Assist?
Now comes the big question – should you lend a helping hand to your ex-colleagues? Here are some factors to consider:
1. **Severance Pay**: You are being paid severance, which means you are no longer employed by the company. Technically, you are not obligated to continue working for them.
2. **Impact of Your Assistance**: Consider the potential impact of your guidance. Will it truly benefit the company and your former colleagues, or will it simply enable them to move forward without facing the consequences of their decision to lay off your team?
3. **Professional Courtesy**: There is an unspoken rule in the business world about helping out your former employer and colleagues, even after you have left the company. While it’s not a legal obligation, it can be seen as a professional courtesy.
## Making a Decision
Ultimately, the decision to assist your team or not is entirely up to you. Here are some possible courses of action you could take:
### If You Choose to Assist:
– Offer your advice and guidance to your ex-colleagues in a limited capacity.
– Set boundaries to ensure that you are not taken advantage of or expected to work for free.
– Use this as an opportunity to network and maintain positive relationships with your former colleagues.
### If You Choose Not to Assist:
– Politely decline the request for help, citing your current status as a former employee.
– Encourage them to seek assistance from other resources within the company or externally.
– Be respectful and professional in your communication, even if you choose not to help.
## Final Thoughts
In the end, it’s important to prioritize your well-being and professional boundaries. While helping out your ex-colleagues can be a kind gesture, it’s essential to consider the potential impact on your mental and emotional health. Remember, you are not obligated to continue working for a company that has let you go.
I hope this guide has helped you navigate this tricky situation. Good luck with your decision, and remember to take care of yourself first and foremost! #WorkplaceDilemma #ProfessionalBoundaries #SeveranceDecision
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Not your problem.
You could feasibly offer the help for an hourly consulting fee of more than your hourly salary. Check your papers first for conflicts, of course.
You signed a severance agreement, right? check that. I highly doubt they can pull it. If they can’t pull severance don’t give them anything for free IMO.
Welcome to your new career as a consultant! Find out your hourly rate before you were laid off, quadruple it, and quote your old company your consulting services at that rate to figure out their problem. Its not like the FP&A team will be paying you out of their pockets, the PE firm screwed up they can pay.
Edit: OP, if you’re considering this (you should) how I would do it is set your rate (at least 4x your hourly for your old job), tell them a minimum 60 hour contract (can decrease or increase), and if they accept go to a lawyer and get them to draw up a consulting contract (max 4 hours id guess) saying your consulting is not financial advice and you’re not liable if they rely on your advice and lose money etc.
E.g. If you made ~$100k / year -> $50 / hour -> (at least) $200 / hour for consulting services -> (60 hour minimum) $12,000 for your minimum consulting services -> (Subtract $2,000 for a lawyer for 4 hours at $500 / hour) $10,000 minimum goes to you for things you already know how to do on top of your severance
Offer to help as a contractor and charge them 2k per day.
If your last working day is done, no obligation.
For legal reasons, I would avoid this like the plague.
Offer your services as an independent consultant and charge them $250/hr.
If you were terminated effective immediately then that is exactly what it means. I would leave everything as read and do not respond anymore unless it’s for further compensation. Severance should not be tied to any additional work from you at this point unless it’s clearly defined in the exit language. Read what you signed. If nothing holds you to them, simply type a letter in reply in the hopes it leaves you “responding or typing back”.
If the request is casual and from peers I like, especially whom I’d want as a reference, I would be open to helping *them*. But a member of senior mgmt who may have given the notice, or any work beyond a one hour request, the list goes on… nothing for them without contractor pay at 2-3x your normal hourly rate due to a lack of benefits and a minimum amount of time, such as 1 week increments.
Ask for the T&M consulting arrangement.
You mind if I DM? I’m considering taking an internal M&A role at a portco and would love to bounce a few things off of you.
DO NOT ASSIST. Fuck them back and let em eat it. You get nothing for ur kindness but a layoff
Do. Not. Help. Them.
Sure it’s your former team and they didn’t exactly let you go, but make them go to their leadership and explain their struggles.
Nope. Ignore. Use your time to hunt for a new job, or vacation. Don’t work for someone who laid you off.
If you start a new firm I am here to work. Will graduate soon.
Consulting fee
Tell them you could come back as a paid consultant.
Just make a crazy hourly rate for your help and tell them that’s what it is and if the agree than you get some extra pocket change for the work you already did and if they don’t accept than it’s not your problem. Imagine doing work for free, not me
Now you ask to do contract work at 200% what your salary was
Double the fee at least as external contractor, its your hand to play / ask and they will fall in line and accept if they are in the shit
Consult for 3x your old salary
Bill them. Come up with an hourly rate and an estimate for your “consultation.” Make sure you charge at least 30% more than they would have paid to keep you on.
You can look at the severance paperwork you signed and see if you have any obligations for consultation after your departure but I doubt you do.
Do not. Please do not. I got laid off out of nowhere when I was working for Labor Relations (completely
different field) for a huge school district at the end of the work day out of nowhere from the Interim Director; since my manager didn’t know. The next 2 weeks I kept gettling text and calls from the person who replaced me asking for help.
My manager also got laid off the month after me lol. **Moral of the story:** if they had the balls to replace you, they better find a way to live without you.
Not your problem. However, if you feel like you should respond in some way, put together an engagement letter with an hourly rate and send it to your former team, management, and new PE firm.
No
Check what you’ve signed and only do those that are indicated there. At times, you will be violating the agreement if you did not help.
Ask for a consulting contract with an upfront retainer payment
Be nice and 3x your market rate and do the work. If the FP&A team is asking you, you should just message whoever is in charge of that team to work out a consultation relationship. Who knows, if you prove essential you may even get a job at a higher wage than you once had.
You need to read your severance agreement. You may be obligated to answer questions during the severance period as part of that agreement.
Mine said I had to answer questions related to processes up to 30 days after the date of separation. Just in case people need help finding something. But I was not required to do any actual work.
Also, there is value in maintaining the bridges that you built, I like to avoid burning bridges, if at all possible.
Bless their hearts.
Offer them assistance at a consultancy rate (1.5x-2x is pretty standard for an equivalent consultant) and an upfront requirement for minimum hours.
No you shouldn’t assist. You don’t work for them anymore. You owe them nothing. If it causes their deal to collapse, its upper management’s fault. Focus on your own job hunt.
Quote them an hourly rate. Your severance is not at risk if you decline.
I am surprised they are even asking you about this if they are not offering you to pay you for your services. They are risking a lawsuit.
Sometimes u burn bridges because u don’t want to walk into the same mistakes.
If you want to stay in this industry, it would be good to step up to the plate and not burn bridges. However, clearly your expertise is valuable and is worth charging a consulting fee. I have no idea how you would go about determining what that consulting fee would be, but perhaps you could start with yourprevious salary/hourly rate. Good luck.
Only help if they pay, no pay no play