They offered me a severance package: what to check before you sign

In My Corner · Learn — 7 min read · Updated July 2026

A meeting you didn't expect, a letter, and an offer: sign here and we'll pay you X to go. It can feel generous and frightening at once. Slow everything down — in Canada, the first offer is very often the legal minimum, not what you're actually entitled to.

Statutory minimum vs common-law severance

Two different things get bundled together:

Statutory minimums — the notice/severance your provincial employment-standards law requires. This is the floor, and it's usually modest.
Common-law reasonable notice — for most non-unionized employees, the courts may entitle you to much more than the statutory minimum, based on your age, length of service, role, and how hard it'll be to find comparable work. It's not unusual for the common-law figure to be several times the statutory one.

An employer's first offer is often framed around the minimum. That doesn't make it what you're owed.

Before you sign anything

Don't sign on the spot. "I'd like to review this properly" is a complete and reasonable answer. There's almost never a real need to sign in the room.
A release is the trade. Signing usually means giving up the right to claim anything more — including, potentially, a human-rights or harassment claim. Know exactly what you're releasing.
Get legal advice before signing. An employment lawyer can tell you in one meeting whether the offer is fair or a fraction of your entitlement — this is the single highest-value hour you can spend here.
Keep working income and mitigation in mind. You generally must try to find comparable work, but that doesn't reduce what you were owed at the point of dismissal.

If you were pushed out rather than laid off, a resignation obtained under pressure may be challengeable as a constructive dismissal — take advice before signing a release.

If any of this has you at the edge — not sleeping, dreading every morning, or worse — please put this article down and talk to a human first: the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline — call or text 988 (free, confidential, 24/7 across Canada) — or Talk Suicide Canada 1-833-456-4566. In an emergency, call 911. The job problem can wait an hour; you matter more.

You don't have to work this out alone. In My Corner is a team of five AI companions for exactly this — one who listens, one who decodes letters and knows your deadlines, one who keeps your evidence organised, one for fresh starts, one who teaches. Private by design: conversations are never stored on our servers.

Talk it through — In My Corner

This article is general information, not legal advice. In Canada, which law applies depends on your province (most workers are provincially regulated; federal workers fall under the Canada Labour Code), and there is no single anti-bullying statute. For decisions that matter, check your provincial Ministry of Labour / OHS regulator, your human-rights tribunal, or an employment lawyer.