Severance & Compensation Checklist

1. Bonus Process

• Save bonus criteria, deadlines, decision-makers, and approval records.
• Record target amounts, past payout practices, eligibility rules, and management promises.
• Identify where discretion applies—pool funding, individual allocation, or performance—and date relevant conversations.

2. Witnesses

• List colleagues who know the bonus process and the records they manage.
• Identify witnesses to compensation promises, performance feedback, assignments, and prior departures.
• Note what each person saw or heard, when, and how they know.

3. Agreements & Awards

• Collect offer letters, contracts, bonus/equity plans, amendments, award statements, and employer policies; distinguish payroll-provider terms.
• Save guaranteed amounts, formulas, milestones, and promises; identify who made them and their authority.
• Check earning, vesting, forfeiture, and active-employment conditions, including year-end and payout dates.

4. Compensation & Reliance

• Compare salary, target and paid bonuses, ratings, accrual periods, payout dates, and proration by year.
• Save recruitment, sign-on, retention, and relocation promises, declined opportunities, and related costs or extra work.
• Calculate the gap between promised or earned compensation and amounts paid.

5. Performance & Personnel File

• Build a dated record of reviews, praise, promotions, assignments, criticism, warnings, and PIPs.
• Preserve relevant emails, chats, client feedback, and project reviews.
• Request your personnel file where applicable, including evaluations, discipline, payroll, and termination records; confirm coverage and response deadlines.

New York Labor Law § 210-b: confirm coverage and the five-business-day response period for a written request by a current or former employee.

6. Employer's Explanation

• Record each reason given for termination or denied pay, including performance, timing, discretion, and restructuring.
• Ask which condition was unmet, who decided, when, and whether pay was never earned or later forfeited.
• Compare each explanation with the plans, performance record, bonus process, and witness accounts.