Would you sacrifice a good reference for a swift exit?

When you’re leaving a job, things might get a little bit messy. If it wasn’t your choice to leave, then you might be blindsided by the decision, and it might cause you to lose a little bit of respect for the people that you work with. Layoffs happen, and you should take them in stride, but that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice everything just to go with the flow. You still get to exercise your rights as an employee, even if they don’t require your services anymore. Just because you’re letting somebody go doesn’t mean it’s an excuse to treat them unfairly. That’s the question that this employee was asking themselves after they were laid off from a job. They were not happy with the way their company handled it, and they wondered what recourse they had in the situation. Offering severance is the bare minimum for being laid off from a job. It gives you enough runway to not be fully blindsided, and it gives you enough time to get your ducks in a row to look for other jobs. It might not be everything, but at least it’s a gesture that your company still has some investment in your success and happiness. You don’t wanna end up with nothing in your pocket, facing a tough job market. You’re allowed to ask for what you want, but companies are legally required to give it to you. But the company in the story wants to go one step further and ask their employees now for more employees to do some extra work for them.