Legal Question in Employment Law in California

To put the matter to rest without the hassle of defending and winning dismissal of the legal action you [probably] think you can take.

Not only are there no laws against poor management or 'unfair treatment' in CA, but in general, unless an employee is civil service, in a union, or has a written employment contract, they are an 'at will' employee that can be disciplined or terminated any time for any reason, with or without �cause�, explanation or notice.

That is, UNLESS the conduct is actually based upon discrimination, harassment or retaliation as defined as �illegal� under the ADA [disability], Civil Rights [age, race, sex, ethnic, religion, pregnancy, etc], FMLA [medical leave], Whistle-blower, or similar statutes.

Any employee's goal should be to keep their supervisors happy and make them look good to the company, and make the company money. That�s how the company pays employee wages. If you don't, then don't be surprised to be replaced.

Now if the conduct was illegal under the above definitions, feel free to contact me for the legal help you�ll need.

There are two sides to your question. 1. why offer you a severance and 2. why the release. The answer to #1 is that it is good HR policy to be moderately generous to departing employees. It helps a great deal with hiring and retention if employees know that even in the worst case scenario they will be given a helping hand when they are shown the door. As for #2, one reason is that it is beneficial from a tax and general legal standpoint if they get something for the severance package they give you, i.e., not simply making it a gift. In addition, terminated employees can often find unscrupulous lawyers who will take a meritless wrongful termination case. The release is a "vaccine" against that. If you think you actually have a wrongful termination claim, even after reading Mr. Nelson's very good and accurate answer, talk to a lawyer before signing. Otherwise, take the money and run.