Conf in a Conf Session

Navigating Being Laid Off

25-minute New Voice Talk

All levels

Timetable

12:45 a.m.-1:15 a.m.

Thursday 16th

Room

Track 4

Audience

Role: AnyTarget audience: North Americans/people interested in working in North America.

Key-Learning

- How to establish the legality of your layoff

- The dynamics of severance agreements

- Whether and when to involve a lawyer, and for what

Lessons Learned from Early 2023

Hopefully you will never need to know what to do in case you are laid off. In January, I needed to learn that, quickly. In this talk, learn from my experience, and save time and trouble, in case!

Layoffs have a tendency to catch whole industries by surprise. Being the kind of professionals who attend conferences to stay current and better our work, we rarely expect our roles to be the ones that wind up on the chopping block. As testers, much of the risk assessment we do routinely in our roles is some variation on asking “what if X happened?” In that spirit, do you know what happens if you get laid off tomorrow? The day before my layoff, I didn’t! I had to find out how to navigate a layoff in a stressful hurry that I’d like to save other people from having to go through.

To that end, this session discusses:

• Labour law and local context, because your rights and entitlements vary from place to place.

• The dynamics of severance agreements and their negotiations.

• Lawyers! Should you enlist the services of one? When? To do what, and to what benefit?

Hopefully you will never need to know what to do in case you are laid off. In January, I needed to learn that, quickly. In this talk, learn from my experience, and save time and trouble, in case!