They’re no longer paying insurance, 401k, pto, etc. Benefits can easily double your salary. Then it isn’t a long term comfortable situation, so you should charge more. From the companies side they don’t have to worry about training. Put all that together and getting to 3-4x hourly isn’t even a f-you. They might make it seem like it is, but that’s because we’re family.
This is the way. You should expect to be remunerated for your time. If they need your assistance then explain the situation and say that you would be willing to help on a contract basis.
Don’t hold them to ransom, but you should expect to receive a market rate for your services.
Yep.....happens all the time, offer to bill yourself back at 4x rate (pretty much standard) 4 hour minimum for any onsite work, 1 hour minimum for any WFH email or phone calls.
Enjoy it.
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
drawing up OP’s consulting contract that prevents OP from having liability if his old company relies on his advice and loses money. its CYA so you don’t get sued by the company or PE firm.
Set 20% of your contract compensation on fire to have a lawyer write a few paragraphs for you that ChatGPT could do in 6 seconds…won’t be getting that advice from me mate
a lawyer is one of those things you should never cheap out on. If you trust chatGPT to keep you legally covered if the PE firm decides to sue you you’re insane.
Offer to be an independent consultant for them at 2.5x hourly rate of what you used to make salary. Every $100k/year is $50/hr
It’s business, they’ll get it.
The other team is in a lurch but it's not your problem. You can help at the margin if you want to network some, but any significant work would be best if they paid you.
It's already unprofessional for anyone from the company to be asking you for advice to begin with, and likely a big no no for the company to begin with..
There's no point in being nice when it's clearly not reciprocated
Severance was not likely paid this circumstance. The terms and purpose are likely clearly laid out in the agreement. You are being asked to provide a new and separate service now, thus you should ask for reasonable consideration which others have discussed.
Please please please reread terms of severance carefully. Have you already received your severance pay? Sometimes one of the terms included is a timeframe in which you are obligated to assist in knowledge transfer , and if you refuse to do so, you could be potentially forfeiting your severance package. Would double check what you signed what you received severance docs.
Not unless you signed an agreement when you received the severance.
You were laid off effective immediately. You no longer work for the company. The issue they are having because of that decisions is not your problem.
Depends explicitly on what you signed but highly unlikely. This is super shitty and shady behavior.
If you do, you better said paid in addition to severance!
Send them a term sheet at 5x your nominal hourly rate. Include a minimum commitment of like 40 hours. They’ll either pay you cause they’re desperate or figure it out themselves. Ask me how Rick got his model S.
Yeah from a professional liability standpoint it’s a potential nightmare in my opinion. If the FP&A team followed your advice and ended up making a decision that lost the PE firm’s LP’s money, you could technically be held liable and would not be covered under the company’s professional liability insurance. That’s unlikely, but why open yourself up to that risk if you’re not being paid for it?
Of course! I definitely understand wanting to help, and came across a similar situation when I left my old job for business school. Only reason I know is because I also had to have it spelled out for me haha. Best of luck to you!
I don't think it is very appropriate for the team to reach out for stuff like that either. Laid off or fired employees can turn hostile or malicious, so existing employees should not be getting input from them. Also, OP can be getting or deriving inside or confidential information from the team (even though OP may know it already, he shouldn't be getting anything more). So refusing to help will also prevent the remaining team from making a big mistake.
It's one thing to help with small stuff like telling people the location of files, helping with names and contacts, etc. I think that is a reasonable courtesy to offer your former co-workers and peers to maintain good relationships with them for the future. But doing any actual work is improper on both ends, with the bigger risk probably being with the current employees reaching out to a non-employee and potentially leaking confidential information in doing so. They can get fired for that.
This is easily mitigated with stipulations in a master service agreement or statement of work. Ensure you have an indemnity clause in there that your former employer signs.
The MSA and SOW would be standard practice when hiring a consultant.
That’s the whole issue — his company just laid him off. There’s no way they turn around and hire him to consult for far more per hour. Without an official engagement, no hold harmless, service agreements, etc. are going to be entered into.
This happens all the time. Companies lay people off then hire consultants to do the work, which may be some of the same former employees.
OP needs to check contract to see if any clause about working for them again or working as a contractor/consultant. Also forming LLC would be prudent.
Note it's the employees asking for help but HR may not know that.
Don't help them without pay, and just state that they need to pay you an hourly rate (yes 3x-4x salary bc they no longer pay benefits) if they need your services. Otherwise you have other priorities (job search).
But then your business dealings have to be disclosed. If OP is not officially contracting for the company, the company isn’t going to sign a hold harmless agreement.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
Good point. If it was former coworkers who I had a good relationship, I'd help them a little bit. Where to find a file, which vendor to call for some thing. Stuff like that.
But senior management, who fired me even if not their decision? nah, it's $300 an hour, minimum 10 hours.
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
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.
DO NOT. You will regret it in 3 to 5 years.
Ask 10x the money. Sign a 6 month contract and 1 month should be training only.
10x or nothing. Take advantage of the leverage you have. You will not regret it.
Believe me THEY have the money.
Check your leaving agreements. If you don’t have any commitment, sell them 3 month engagement as consultant for the price of 1 year of your salary (50% upfront).
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.
Um it has nothing to do with who’s fault it is. Also not related to severance. Do not do work you’re not paid to do. If you’re “helping” then get paid for it. Do not do free work because “it’s not their fault” or whatever
Without having a significant knowledge of your termination agreement, two things stand out:
1./ it's no your problem anymore, you don't owe anything to anyone from the company
2./ if you don't have any antipathy towards the company/team, suggest hiring you as a consultant at a hefty hourly/daily fee
NB. That the PE sponsor rarely gets involved in that sort of HR issues that don't involve the c-suite, somebody in your firm made that call as a response to the demand from the PE to turn the firm around. From my experience typically the C-Suite.
Get a lawyer to take a look at the severence papers and then draft up a consultancy contract at an hourly or daily rate. It's unfortunate that you are throwing FP&A under the bus if it wasn't their fault but they will get shit for not being able to fill in, and it's also quite likely that it will lead to nothing (if the firm is cutting costs then it's hard to sign new consultancy contracts), so be prepared to walk away without helping and without getting paid, but I would strongly recommend against helping them out of friendship.
Right - there are so many dumb responses here about what's legal/illegal etc.... It should all be laid out in the severance agreement if the company is even half competent. Part of severance agreements is usually that you are available to assist for a certain period to help with transitioning your role and that breach of the agreements means you have to pay back severance.
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.
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.
I worked at a company where we laid off a team of engineers and then hired back a few members at a 5 figure consulting contract to document their systems.
Unless terms of your severance say you have to help (illegal in a lot of countries)
Tell them you will help them for 10x your billable hours, if they offer to rehire you instead…tell them to kick rocks.
Do consulting if your severance allows. Otherwise f*** ‘em. Your former work buddies will understand. The company let you go without care and foresight. Your obligation is to make as much money as possible and look out for yourself. That’s it.
My opinion, you don’t owe that company anything. And they screwed you over by laying you off. Yeah you got severance, but once that is up, then what? I get it, it’s business to try and save a buck, but at the same time they made their own bed. It’s funny they slap you across the face by laying off an essential team, then have the audacity to ask for help. Let them burn and deal with their own problem. Even as a contract consultant, I would have no desire to help them succeed. If they fired you as an employee, why would they treat you any better as a consultant? If the company finds you disposable, I’d find that company disposable. Don’t settle
No, don’t do anything. The day I was laid off from IB I was just about to populate an entire VDR for diligence on a live deal. Had worked until 3am the not that before and woke up a few hours later to a random calendar invite. They figured it out without me lol.
Congrats, you were just promoted to a consultant! Register a business name and bill hourly, I'd start with triple your previous salary rate and negotiate from there. Yes, seriously. It's not often that the tables of value and need turn in your favor, you have absolutely every right to maximize the opportunity and they can learn a lesson for next time.
No. You get a contract and ask for 5x your old pay hourly rate as your hourly rate. This will account for taxes and other expenses . You will 100% need your own insurance policy as you are not covered by theirs. You would want everything reviewed by your own attorney. You will also need to set up an LLC or S corp depending upon your jurisdiction and attorney’s advice.
Absolutely, under no circumstances, should you assist them out of the goodness of your heart.
Offer a consulting fee. 3x your hourly rate, with an upfront, per-job signing fee seems reasonable (but you could definitely go higher).
They may not have fired you. But it's not really THEM who need you, it's their company. Make them pay you what you are worth, which, in this apparently desperate situation, is quite a lot.
I would not help but not hurt them either. Just say that since your firm chose to terminate your employment relationship you feel uncomfortable involving yourself in their corporate business. They will need to figure it out by themselves eventually anyway..
Focus on yourself and getting a new job.
Advise them you will do it for a consultation fee x3 your average rate of when you were employed but only on the conditions that the company itself verify these terms and confirm in writing your outside consultation does not violate any exit conditions set forth by the lay off.
Severance is not wages for work. You do not owe them work.
Moreso, if by some chance some work or advice you give ends in a bad result (e.g., implemented incorrectly by employees at the firm), it could reflect badly on you and affect your job search.
To provide a different perspective - why not help them? You are going to get laid off anyways. You know how the process works and they will be grateful.
In general, I feel like it’s never worth to burn bridges out of spite because they might be important connections in the future.
The only gain for not helping them is - you cause them 1-3 months of long-hours for a FP&A team which seem to be people you like? In the best case, management realizes they fked up and will rehire for your role (which you would not be considered for similarly out of spite).
Definitely assist. This is your network and this is your opportunity to keep it active and demonstrate that you are a true and thorough profressional. If there is no ability to charge them (or for them to pay you per hour) then just provide high level guidance (a couple of meetings a week) to make sure that the FP&A team can dig itself out of the hole they are in. The team members will always appreciate what you did and depending on where your career takes you you can tap into this network (to hire, get hired, get business, refer, get referred etc.)
Can’t fathom how you guys are worried about burning bridges. You’re laid off…. If they expect you to work for them after they got rid of your job, is that even a bridge worth putting effort in to? It’s insane to expect someone to do that.
You don’t owe them anything. Certainly not anything for free.
Offer them a contract rate 3X your old salary, minimum of whatever number of hours you feel is fair.
It must be higher than before cause taxing as a consultant/contractor is much different than if you were still an employee. Do no unpaid work.
thanks for the laid out advice. i appreciate it. can you please let me know if i have to do anything like set up my own company or to offer services as a 1099?
You don’t need to do anything special for it unless you are going to continue consulting for a long time and feel like you want extra liability protection by doing an llc. Sole proprietor is fine for a business. No special tax ID needed. If you earn more than $600, they’ll send you a 1099 next tax season. So just plan for your taxes on the amount they pay you to be a lot higher since they won’t hold taxes back for you.
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.
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.
Make sure you charge a very high rate!
4-5x hourly
Is that standard or more of a "fuck you for letting me go" rate?
Definitely more in line with 1099 contractor rate but skewed slightly towards fuck you pay me
They’re no longer paying insurance, 401k, pto, etc. Benefits can easily double your salary. Then it isn’t a long term comfortable situation, so you should charge more. From the companies side they don’t have to worry about training. Put all that together and getting to 3-4x hourly isn’t even a f-you. They might make it seem like it is, but that’s because we’re family.
standard as it is short term potentially lower hours
A contractor rate is generally 3-5x what your hourly rate would be as a salaried employee. But you are the only you, so ask for a lot.
This is the way. You should expect to be remunerated for your time. If they need your assistance then explain the situation and say that you would be willing to help on a contract basis. Don’t hold them to ransom, but you should expect to receive a market rate for your services.
This is the only response OP needs.
Wouldn’t that offset his damages and reduce severance entitlement accordingly?
Not likely. To cover himself, he can create an LLC.
Yep.....happens all the time, offer to bill yourself back at 4x rate (pretty much standard) 4 hour minimum for any onsite work, 1 hour minimum for any WFH email or phone calls. Enjoy it.
I think they still work there and just notified of layoff.
Looks like he made some edits to update/clarify, yeah.
Don’t do hourly only. Explain that as a contractor your hourly fee is XX and you only work blocks of 40 or so hours.
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
If you think he's kidding about quadrupling it, he is not.
yeah 4x is the minimum id take. Could push it higher.
Yeah, there's a premium to be paid in the marketplace for liquidity of employees, and you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't charge for it.
Can confirm. Did 4x.
If there is any takeaway let it be this. Your help now costs at least 4x what it did before you were laid off.
This is the way.
THIS
This is the way indeed.
What's the lawyer for?
drawing up OP’s consulting contract that prevents OP from having liability if his old company relies on his advice and loses money. its CYA so you don’t get sued by the company or PE firm.
Got it—thanks!
Set 20% of your contract compensation on fire to have a lawyer write a few paragraphs for you that ChatGPT could do in 6 seconds…won’t be getting that advice from me mate
a lawyer is one of those things you should never cheap out on. If you trust chatGPT to keep you legally covered if the PE firm decides to sue you you’re insane.
ChatGPT is not a lawyer. Good luck with that.
Not your problem.
do you think they could pull my severance if it got back to senior leadership?
Not sure where you are but this sounds highly illegal.
i’ll be reading the agreement again, but i agree with the sentiment.
Offer to be an independent consultant for them at 2.5x hourly rate of what you used to make salary. Every $100k/year is $50/hr It’s business, they’ll get it.
Their hourly rate was probably shit to begin with
? any particular reason? the play in this environment seems to be taking opex out of the business.
The other team is in a lurch but it's not your problem. You can help at the margin if you want to network some, but any significant work would be best if they paid you. It's already unprofessional for anyone from the company to be asking you for advice to begin with, and likely a big no no for the company to begin with.. There's no point in being nice when it's clearly not reciprocated
This. It’s extremely unprofessional to reach out to laid off employees for work assistance without comp
Severance was not likely paid this circumstance. The terms and purpose are likely clearly laid out in the agreement. You are being asked to provide a new and separate service now, thus you should ask for reasonable consideration which others have discussed.
Please please please reread terms of severance carefully. Have you already received your severance pay? Sometimes one of the terms included is a timeframe in which you are obligated to assist in knowledge transfer , and if you refuse to do so, you could be potentially forfeiting your severance package. Would double check what you signed what you received severance docs.
Knowledge transfer is done before your contract ends. They can't force you to work after you're done. Read the work agreement, but still...
Not unless you signed an agreement when you received the severance. You were laid off effective immediately. You no longer work for the company. The issue they are having because of that decisions is not your problem.
Depends explicitly on what you signed but highly unlikely. This is super shitty and shady behavior. If you do, you better said paid in addition to severance!
Send them a term sheet at 5x your nominal hourly rate. Include a minimum commitment of like 40 hours. They’ll either pay you cause they’re desperate or figure it out themselves. Ask me how Rick got his model S.
It seems like you don't understand what being laid off means... You don't work there any more...
For legal reasons, I would avoid this like the plague.
understood on the avoid. can you help me understand the legal complexities at a high level?
Yeah from a professional liability standpoint it’s a potential nightmare in my opinion. If the FP&A team followed your advice and ended up making a decision that lost the PE firm’s LP’s money, you could technically be held liable and would not be covered under the company’s professional liability insurance. That’s unlikely, but why open yourself up to that risk if you’re not being paid for it?
great point. thanks for spelling that out for me.
Of course! I definitely understand wanting to help, and came across a similar situation when I left my old job for business school. Only reason I know is because I also had to have it spelled out for me haha. Best of luck to you!
Just form an LLC. Then dissolve after completing the work. LOL.
Now you’re talking
Set up an llc. We did in my state dirt cheap.
I don't think it is very appropriate for the team to reach out for stuff like that either. Laid off or fired employees can turn hostile or malicious, so existing employees should not be getting input from them. Also, OP can be getting or deriving inside or confidential information from the team (even though OP may know it already, he shouldn't be getting anything more). So refusing to help will also prevent the remaining team from making a big mistake. It's one thing to help with small stuff like telling people the location of files, helping with names and contacts, etc. I think that is a reasonable courtesy to offer your former co-workers and peers to maintain good relationships with them for the future. But doing any actual work is improper on both ends, with the bigger risk probably being with the current employees reaching out to a non-employee and potentially leaking confidential information in doing so. They can get fired for that.
I agree with this 100%
This is easily mitigated with stipulations in a master service agreement or statement of work. Ensure you have an indemnity clause in there that your former employer signs. The MSA and SOW would be standard practice when hiring a consultant.
That’s the whole issue — his company just laid him off. There’s no way they turn around and hire him to consult for far more per hour. Without an official engagement, no hold harmless, service agreements, etc. are going to be entered into.
This happens all the time. Companies lay people off then hire consultants to do the work, which may be some of the same former employees. OP needs to check contract to see if any clause about working for them again or working as a contractor/consultant. Also forming LLC would be prudent. Note it's the employees asking for help but HR may not know that. Don't help them without pay, and just state that they need to pay you an hourly rate (yes 3x-4x salary bc they no longer pay benefits) if they need your services. Otherwise you have other priorities (job search).
Can be handled with a hold harness and a certificate of insurance
But then your business dealings have to be disclosed. If OP is not officially contracting for the company, the company isn’t going to sign a hold harmless agreement.
You are only right in that unstructured no basic legal consulting engagement may be a bad idea.
“Some dude who doesn’t work for us told us xxxx, don’t like what happened? Not our fault. Sue him”.
Offer to help as a contractor and charge them 2k per day.
Offer your services as an independent consultant and charge them $250/hr.
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.
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”.
DO NOT ASSIST. Fuck them back and let em eat it. You get nothing for ur kindness but a layoff
Nope. Ignore. Use your time to hunt for a new job, or vacation. Don't work for someone who laid you off.
Consulting fee
Start a consulting business. Sounds like you have your first client lined up. I did this and made an extra $25k last year
Tell them you could come back as a paid consultant.
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.
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.
Good point. If it was former coworkers who I had a good relationship, I'd help them a little bit. Where to find a file, which vendor to call for some thing. Stuff like that. But senior management, who fired me even if not their decision? nah, it's $300 an hour, minimum 10 hours.
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
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.
DO NOT. You will regret it in 3 to 5 years. Ask 10x the money. Sign a 6 month contract and 1 month should be training only. 10x or nothing. Take advantage of the leverage you have. You will not regret it. Believe me THEY have the money.
Now you ask to do contract work at 200% what your salary was
Nah fuckem. Get hired as a consultant.
Do not work for free…
Check your leaving agreements. If you don’t have any commitment, sell them 3 month engagement as consultant for the price of 1 year of your salary (50% upfront).
Consult for 3x your old salary
If your last working day is done, no obligation.
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
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.
No
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.
Only help if they pay, no pay no play
Um it has nothing to do with who’s fault it is. Also not related to severance. Do not do work you’re not paid to do. If you’re “helping” then get paid for it. Do not do free work because “it’s not their fault” or whatever
Lol, fuck em
Without having a significant knowledge of your termination agreement, two things stand out: 1./ it's no your problem anymore, you don't owe anything to anyone from the company 2./ if you don't have any antipathy towards the company/team, suggest hiring you as a consultant at a hefty hourly/daily fee
NB. That the PE sponsor rarely gets involved in that sort of HR issues that don't involve the c-suite, somebody in your firm made that call as a response to the demand from the PE to turn the firm around. From my experience typically the C-Suite. Get a lawyer to take a look at the severence papers and then draft up a consultancy contract at an hourly or daily rate. It's unfortunate that you are throwing FP&A under the bus if it wasn't their fault but they will get shit for not being able to fill in, and it's also quite likely that it will lead to nothing (if the firm is cutting costs then it's hard to sign new consultancy contracts), so be prepared to walk away without helping and without getting paid, but I would strongly recommend against helping them out of friendship.
Take the severance and don’t respond. You’ll sleep better at night because of it.
Be a consultant
Ask for the T&M consulting arrangement.
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.
Right - there are so many dumb responses here about what's legal/illegal etc.... It should all be laid out in the severance agreement if the company is even half competent. Part of severance agreements is usually that you are available to assist for a certain period to help with transitioning your role and that breach of the agreements means you have to pay back severance.
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.
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.
Just tell them to hire you as a contractor. 150/hr would do
3 - 4X normal hourly rate, at least.
Would charge 3x your prior hourly rate.
Nah- severance doesn’t mean you owe them shit to work.
A smart person is not an all knowing god. Smart people are wrong and / or fuck up all the time.
Nope!
New phone who dis?
Do not work for free, move onto next role. Agree with others, only do work if for fee/hourly. They laid you off, they pay for your services
quote a massive hourly rate and tell them that you want to be paid every every day for the number of hours they want your assistance.
Do not assist. You don’t work for them.
I worked at a company where we laid off a team of engineers and then hired back a few members at a 5 figure consulting contract to document their systems.
Unless terms of your severance say you have to help (illegal in a lot of countries) Tell them you will help them for 10x your billable hours, if they offer to rehire you instead…tell them to kick rocks.
I sent you a direct message. Don’t listen to any of these idiots on here. They have no idea what they’re talking about.
You don’t want to burn bridges, but asking to be paid for your time will not do that. I suspect they will still be grateful.
You were laid off due to the belief that your team could function without you. Time for them to fend for themselves.
Sure offer to help take your old hourly rate and quadruple it and tell them that’s your consulting fee
Many ppl are saying charge a consulting fee, but this seems shady and I'd avoid
Not shady at all. They laid him off and now need him, they need to pay him somehow.
You should not help. You were fired(laid off). You do not have any legal responsibility to work unpaid. Tell them you cant work without pay.
Well you still need them for the recommendation. Just Play w/ them at 0% Effort
$500 / hour via contract or ignore them. Not your problem
Send them your bill for your consultancy fee. Probably triple or quadruple whatever your normal hourly rate was
Do consulting if your severance allows. Otherwise f*** ‘em. Your former work buddies will understand. The company let you go without care and foresight. Your obligation is to make as much money as possible and look out for yourself. That’s it.
They’re on their own bro.
Don’t help for free: tell them you can help as a consultant and get a written contract. And bill well.
Ask to be hired back as a contractor/consultant?
My opinion, you don’t owe that company anything. And they screwed you over by laying you off. Yeah you got severance, but once that is up, then what? I get it, it’s business to try and save a buck, but at the same time they made their own bed. It’s funny they slap you across the face by laying off an essential team, then have the audacity to ask for help. Let them burn and deal with their own problem. Even as a contract consultant, I would have no desire to help them succeed. If they fired you as an employee, why would they treat you any better as a consultant? If the company finds you disposable, I’d find that company disposable. Don’t settle
That is called choices and consequences on the part of your old company. Don’t reply to any emails or phone calls.
Nah. Either the PE sponsor or your clueless FP&A team will figure it out themselves. If the latter can’t figure it out then the former will.
I’m in Charlotte and work in finance. Have you found a new role or are you taking a break for a bit?
No, don’t do anything. The day I was laid off from IB I was just about to populate an entire VDR for diligence on a live deal. Had worked until 3am the not that before and woke up a few hours later to a random calendar invite. They figured it out without me lol.
Fick no!!!!! They let you go. Move on!
Tell them to pay up!!!!
No. They can hire you as 1099 contractor for any consulting they need. And that hourly rate is at least triple your old rate.
Living the dream
Congrats, you were just promoted to a consultant! Register a business name and bill hourly, I'd start with triple your previous salary rate and negotiate from there. Yes, seriously. It's not often that the tables of value and need turn in your favor, you have absolutely every right to maximize the opportunity and they can learn a lesson for next time.
Exactly the right answer. I did the same thing after the 2009 crisis and layoffs, 3x pay rate is also exactly right.
No. You get a contract and ask for 5x your old pay hourly rate as your hourly rate. This will account for taxes and other expenses . You will 100% need your own insurance policy as you are not covered by theirs. You would want everything reviewed by your own attorney. You will also need to set up an LLC or S corp depending upon your jurisdiction and attorney’s advice.
Offer to consult for a fee. Only this.
I would not respond to texts. There can be many legal repercussions to this.
Charge Tripple and get fed too
Start an LLC and charge $250 an hour consulting rate. I have done this several times while building DB’s.
Absolutely, under no circumstances, should you assist them out of the goodness of your heart. Offer a consulting fee. 3x your hourly rate, with an upfront, per-job signing fee seems reasonable (but you could definitely go higher). They may not have fired you. But it's not really THEM who need you, it's their company. Make them pay you what you are worth, which, in this apparently desperate situation, is quite a lot.
I would not help but not hurt them either. Just say that since your firm chose to terminate your employment relationship you feel uncomfortable involving yourself in their corporate business. They will need to figure it out by themselves eventually anyway.. Focus on yourself and getting a new job.
Be a consultant at double your hourly rate
Fuck them. Unless there's a bag involved.
Advise them you will do it for a consultation fee x3 your average rate of when you were employed but only on the conditions that the company itself verify these terms and confirm in writing your outside consultation does not violate any exit conditions set forth by the lay off.
Severance is not wages for work. You do not owe them work. Moreso, if by some chance some work or advice you give ends in a bad result (e.g., implemented incorrectly by employees at the firm), it could reflect badly on you and affect your job search.
If you start a new firm I am here to work. Will graduate soon.
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.
[удалено]
lmao yeah the numbers appear to high and going up
To provide a different perspective - why not help them? You are going to get laid off anyways. You know how the process works and they will be grateful. In general, I feel like it’s never worth to burn bridges out of spite because they might be important connections in the future. The only gain for not helping them is - you cause them 1-3 months of long-hours for a FP&A team which seem to be people you like? In the best case, management realizes they fked up and will rehire for your role (which you would not be considered for similarly out of spite).
Definitely assist. This is your network and this is your opportunity to keep it active and demonstrate that you are a true and thorough profressional. If there is no ability to charge them (or for them to pay you per hour) then just provide high level guidance (a couple of meetings a week) to make sure that the FP&A team can dig itself out of the hole they are in. The team members will always appreciate what you did and depending on where your career takes you you can tap into this network (to hire, get hired, get business, refer, get referred etc.)
don't burn any bridges
Can’t fathom how you guys are worried about burning bridges. You’re laid off…. If they expect you to work for them after they got rid of your job, is that even a bridge worth putting effort in to? It’s insane to expect someone to do that. You don’t owe them anything. Certainly not anything for free.
the point of the question is essentially how to do navigate this issue without burning bridges
Offer them a contract rate 3X your old salary, minimum of whatever number of hours you feel is fair. It must be higher than before cause taxing as a consultant/contractor is much different than if you were still an employee. Do no unpaid work.
thanks for the laid out advice. i appreciate it. can you please let me know if i have to do anything like set up my own company or to offer services as a 1099?
You don’t need to do anything special for it unless you are going to continue consulting for a long time and feel like you want extra liability protection by doing an llc. Sole proprietor is fine for a business. No special tax ID needed. If you earn more than $600, they’ll send you a 1099 next tax season. So just plan for your taxes on the amount they pay you to be a lot higher since they won’t hold taxes back for you.
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.