Mark Zuckerberg offered an impressive severance package for 11,000 Facebook employees who were being laid off. They were offered 16 weeks of salary, plus two additional weeks for every year of service without instituting a limit. So if someone has served five years at Meta, he will get around six months of pay.
Meta Platform will also continue to extend health insurance coverage for six months for both employees and their dependents, plus provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including “early access to unpublished job leads,” the company’s official blog said.
The sacked employees will also receive restricted stock units that are due to vest on November 15. It means they will be able to cash in those shares.
Indian companies aren’t ferrying very different wares from Meta when it comes to severance packages. Byju’s announced on October 12 it was laying off 5 per cent of its workforce -- nearly 2,500 employees. CEO Raveendran assured an expansive exit package consisting of extended medical insurance coverage for employees and their families for six months, provision to keep the company assets till the time they need. The company will also provide assistance to the laid off employees in their hunt for jobs as they continue to remain on Byju’s payroll.
Unacademy has also laid off 10 per cent of its workforce or about 350 employees this week. The laid-off employees will get severance pay equivalent to their notice periods and an additional two months’ salaries, an accelerated one-year vesting period, medical insurance coverage for an additional one year, and dedicated placement and career support, according to an email by CEO Gaurav Munjal.
So why have firms begun to invest more in strong severance packages? Anandorup Ghose, Partner at Deloitte India, explains.
Able Joseph, Co-Founder of Aisle, agrees and stresses the human aspect of the process of layoffs.
Can the size and quality of the exit perks be correlated with the investment that start-ups like Byju’s or Unacademy received? Ghose says no. He didn't correlate funding with severance packages. He says, its a fairly common practices, which are becoming increasingly essential.
In fact, the severance, as well as the severance packages, might both stem from the overall culture intrinsic to the start-up sector, says Joseph.
Even as the IT sector plans a course correction, and switches to a cautionary strategy for the next few quarters, it is clear that they want to send out a positive message to future job seekers. Ghose pointed out that some of the severance practices -- like an extension of medical insurance -- have been in place for a long time. One wonders if traditional business houses are also holding themselves to such high standards? Well, that’s a question for another day.
 "Is the Meta Inc severance package a lesson for others?")
