#66🤑 Navigating a Performance Plan with ADHD: Managing Your Exit
How to maximize your severance package as someone with ADHD or a disability.
Welcome to Tech Atypically 👋, your weekly blog for navigating the challenges of ADHD and being in the tech industry.
I am a coach specializing in ADHD and product management, and I help you change one belief and take one action each week.
Part 9 of the Performance and Productivity series.
🐼Are you an overwhelmed tech worker with ADHD? Get help now.
🦋The Takeaways
The Belief: I have no power in negotiating my severance package.
The Reality: Until you have a signed end date with the company, you have power.
The Action: Treat severance package negotiations as compensation negotiations.
⭐️Introduction
This is part 2 of my mini-series on what to do about being put on a performance improvement plan when you have ADHD. Last week I provided tips on beating a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) to keep your job.
This week I provide tips on negotiating and maximizing your severance package to exit the company.
For the unfamiliar, a severance package is a negotiated monetary amount (that can include benefits) that you accept to leave the company. Not everyone offers it but it’s common in the US tech industry.
Maximizing your severance package might be the difference between making rent or having a visa long enough to hold you over to your next job.
😵💫The Belief – I'm powerless in negotiating my severance
When you’ve been put on a PIP, it may feel like your world is crumbling. Whether it was out of the blue or you felt like it was coming, it’s a jarring experience.
Picture this: You're called into a meeting with HR and your manager. They hand you a document detailing all the ways you've underperformed or allegedly screwed up.
Whether the items on the list are true, false, or made up, it doesn’t matter. HR needed written documentation to quietly tell you to get F out. If they want you gone, fighting it is an uphill battle.
It's normal to spiral emotionally. Your job, livelihood, and even your right to stay in the country (for visa holders) are on the line. With ADHD emotional dysregulation and shame in the mix, you've got a recipe for one of two common scenarios.
Someone willing to burn the whole place down on the way out and decry injustice.
You don’t care what they do, screw them…ADHD rage mode.
Someone willing to quietly take whatever they can and leave the premises as quickly as possible.
You carry the trauma to wherever you go and never allow yourself to share or process what happened. ADHD quiet shame mode.
I state these two scenarios in hopes you avoid both possibilities.
Instead, I want you to exit your company with the maximum amount of compensation, pride, and protection.
🤝The Reality – You have power until your end date is signed
Amid the emotional turmoil of a PIP, it can be hard to see your situation clearly.
That's why some of the best advice I got was this simple reminder: Being put on a PIP puts you in a position of power.
Think about it from the company's perspective. They've decided, for whatever reason, that they want you out of your role. Their ideal scenario is for you to agree to leave quickly and quietly, so they can backfill your position and move on.
But here's the reality - until you have an end date signed on paper, you control when and how that transition happens.
You have power over what happens. Use this knowledge to empower yourself in your negotiations and maximize your severance package.
🛠️The Action – Maximizing time for money
💼 Treat severance talks like any salary negotiation.
Do market research, highlight your value, and ask for more. The worst they can say is no.
🤝 Don't go it alone.
Consult with people you trust - a lawyer, mentor, therapist, etc. Processing with others helps keep shame and catastrophizing in check.
🏢 Remember HR works for the company, not you.
They aim to minimize costs and disruption, not to make sure you leave happy.
📝 Get everything in writing.
Document all communication until your last paycheck clears and unemployment is approved, just in case.
⏰ Take the maximum time to review and negotiate your exit package.
Until you sign, they have to keep you on payroll with benefits.
👨⚖️ Consult with an employment lawyer well-versed in PIPs and local and state laws.
They can help extend your time on payroll, review contracts, and clarify your eligibility for unemployment benefits.
It is a common myth that taking a severance package due to a PIP makes you ineligible for unemployment.
An attorney is not as expensive as you think, and the time they add to your employment by adding a legal review time can more than pay for itself.
A big thanks to Hardeep and the folks at Rehki and Wolk for their help and article advice.
🏥 Explore taking a medical leave of absence for your ADHD.
Work with your psychiatrist/therapist on your options. They'll be the ones to help you submit for leave. This can buy you more time, especially critical if you're on a visa.
If you have other disabilities, you’ll see guidance from the provider that handles that scope of care for you.
For example, if your disability is related to anxiety or a heart condition, you’d see your primary care provider.
✨Conclusion
You may not have the power to keep your job, but you have the power to decide how to move on. Maximizing your severance allows you to have the financial support and space to discover your next steps.
It took me a long time to process and recover from the experiences that I described. However, I eventually did, and I moved on.
I had to go on a journey to process what happened and to overcome the false narratives that I'm not a good person or product manager. A severance package helped pay for that journey, and I'm grateful for it.
Not all severance packages are negotiable, but it doesn't hurt to try.
What are they going to do? Fire you?
🐼If you’re on PIP now and need support, let’s talk.
⏭️Next Week
Understanding and Improving Productivity as a Product Manager with ADHD
Rawi, I think you’re doing a great job to help yourself and others. Your insights are very helpful, positive and inspiring. I hope it brings you much success to you and to others. Keep up the good work Rawi.