My friend is a customer service rep who is ready to retire. Her company is talking about layoffs with 13+ weeks of severance, but when she asked (anonymously) if they were accepting volunteers, they said no. In case she’s not one of the ones told to clean out her desk, what are the ways she could get terminated while preserving her ability to claim unemployment (which would equal the 13 weeks of severance)?
UPDATE: She took my advice and saw her doctor. He agreed that she’s experiencing a job-related stress injury, set her up with a Disability claim, and referred her for psychiatric counseling.
Thank you all for the suggestions! One that I mentioned to her is to ask her doctor if her recent health issues could be related to the fact she gets stressed dealing with corporate customers, who can be very demanding. It’s an increasing proportion of her job that is not part of her original job description (actually the reason she wants to quit). Let it slip in the employee chat system that she’s seeing a doctor about workplace stress induced illness. Management will see it as a prelude to a workplace disability claim and want her out.