I'm an employment lawyer. Here are the first 3 questions to ask HR if you're laid off or fired.

• Employment law attorney Craig Levey shares insights into HR's role in termination meetings.
• Levey advises employees to ask about the reason for termination, benefits end date, and severance.
• In layoffs, Levey suggests consulting an attorney to understand separation agreements and potential legal claims.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Craig Levey, an employment law attorney and partner at Bennett & Belfort, P.C., a law firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been an employment law attorney for 12 years. My firm represents individuals and we specialize in discrimination, sexual harassment, wage and hour disputes, and whistleblower claims.

People need to understand that HR works for the company. The company issues their paychecks, and, at the end of the day, they're most interested in ensuring that the company isn't liable for anything.

Here's how HR professionals are trained in how to conduct terminations.

HR has three main objectives when conducting terminations

There are three main objectives, from the HR professional's standpoint, when terminating somebody.

1. They don't want the employee to have notice of the termination meeting.

The typical scenario is that the employee's supervisor will notify them of this meeting the same day that it happens. In some cases, mere minutes beforehand because they don't want the employee to prepare for the meeting; they don't want them to prepare a list of questions, send out any emails, download documents, or other things of that nature.

And then there's the "HR ambush," in which an employee has been notified of a meeting with their supervisor, but when they show up to the meeting — whether it's virtually or in person — they see HR there. They're obviously shocked.

2. They want the meeting itself to go as fast as possible.

They want it to be a quick and dirty meeting. In their ideal scenario, it only lasts a few minutes.

During that actual meeting, the company will inform them that they're terminated, when their final day is, and when their benefits end. They don't want them to get into much more detail than that.

3. They want to ensure they don't say anything that will make the company liable.

HR doesn't want employees asking questions during this meeting, which is one of the reasons they don't give them notice — they don't want them to prepare for it.

In the US, most employees are at-will employees, so the companies don't need to give them a reason for termination. But the more questions employees ask, the more it opens the company up to liability if HR or the supervisor doesn't answer the questions correctly.

For example, over the last several months, many videos have gone viral on TikTok and elsewhere of employees asking all these questions, and it's led to terrible press for the company. So HR doesn't want the employee asking questions.

What to do if you find yourself in a termination meeting

Some employees have a tendency not to ask any questions because they're so shocked — they freeze, which makes sense.

But you should take advantage of the one to two minutes that you have with HR or the supervisor just to get as much information as possible.

What I suggest employees do is ask three questions:

1. Why am I being fired?

If you're an at-will employee, the company doesn't need to provide you with a reason you're being fired. But it doesn't hurt to ask because, in the worst-case scenario, they say, "We're not telling you."

But sometimes, they will give you pieces of information that can be beneficial if you have legal claims against the company.

2. When do my benefits end?

In most cases of termination, they either end effective immediately or at the end of the month. But you want to know when your benefits end so that you can cover health insurance and other needs, and you need to know how fast to act.

3. Am I being offered severance?

You want to know if the company is offering you any money. Then, you are in a position where you can prepare to potentially hire an employment law attorney or just plan the next steps.

I understand lawyers aren't cheap, but if you've been offered a severance agreement, there's some money at play. Of course, I'm biased because I'm a plaintiff's side employment law attorney, but I think it makes sense to spend at least one hour on an attorney to understand your rights.

The employment attorney can explain to you what you're signing because the agreements are often very hard to understand. At the very least, you'll get value for that knowledge, and if you sign it, you're getting money from the company.

On the flip side, the lawyer may tell you, "You should not sign that because you've got really good legal claims," which could lead to additional money for the employee.

Layoffs have a slightly different approach

Layoffs are a bit different.

Because there are several individuals involved, the company will plan this ahead of time and, depending on how many people are being laid off, decide if they're going to offer them severance or other compensation.

With layoffs, the companies are more concerned with the press that they're going to receive from it. Because, particularly with larger companies, when they're laying off 15% of the workforce, for example, they know that the press is going to catch wind of that.

That's why we often see the CEO calling an all-hands meeting at 9 a.m. and having a carefully crafted script where they discuss the layoffs, why they had to happen, and so on.

It is a very different situation than when HR is terminating just one person for cause.

What to do if you're laid off

As an employee, you likely aren't going to get an opportunity in real time to ask questions in a large layoff. The CEO will go on Zoom, but you won't have the opportunity to comment as you're just listening.

The company will have prepared potentially a separation agreement, and there's going to be a layout process. It's going to be very planned.

They'll often say if you have any questions to contact someone in benefits or HR. So you can email questions, but it's not the same real-time back and forth.

I think from a strategy standpoint, the employee should still approach next steps the same way. If you're offered a severance agreement, it makes sense to meet with an attorney to review it because you want to make sure you understand what you're signing. And you still need to assess whether you have legal claims against the company, just like you would if you were the only person fired.

The only potential issue is that when you're one of a hundred people laid off, it's much harder to prove your legal claim because the company's going to say, "Oh no, we terminated him because he was part of the layoff. He and 99 others got laid off. It had nothing to do with discrimination." It makes it harder to prove potential legal claims.

HR is not your friend

I don't think every HR professional is a bad person, but people need to understand that at the end of the day, one of HR's duties is to look out for the company and to prevent it from liability.

Their allegiance is to the company, not to the employee. Employees need to understand that HR is not your friend.

If you're a former HR executive or professional who has insight into HR practices and would like to share your story, email Jane Zhang at [email protected].