I Got a Severance Package at 52. What Do I Do With It? (2026)
The short answer
Do not sign it this week. Do not spend it this month.
If you are 40 or over, the law gives you at least 21 days to think. It is 45 days if others were let go with you. Then you get 7 more days to take your signature back.
That is the EEOC's own guide: "If you are being rushed, ask for more time."
The paper is written to be signed fast. The law is written so you can take your time.
What this guide answers
What did IBM hand a 52 year old on his way out?
Quick answer: one month's pay, and a deadline tucked into the attachment.
You read it twice at the kitchen table. The envelope has your name typed on it. The only line you really took in was the date they want it back.
Look at what one company put in that envelope.
In March 2016, IBM let Michael Rumsey go in a group layoff. He was 52, the court order says. His packet held a "Resource Action Separation Agreement."
He got one month's salary and three months of health and life insurance. For that, he signed away his other claims. His age claim could only go to arbitration, on his own.
The attachment said this, in IBM's own words. "If the demand for arbitration is not timely submitted, the claim shall be deemed waived."
Twenty minutes, and you decide nothing on the call
Sitting with a letter and a deadline? It is a video call about my own business, Switch to America. You sign nothing on it.
You can always say no.That July, he filed an age charge with the EEOC.
In 2020 the EEOC finished looking at IBM's mass layoffs from 2013 to 2018. It found "reasonable cause" to believe IBM broke the age law. Older workers made up 85.85% of the pool IBM looked at for cuts. That is the court's summary of the agency's finding.
Then IBM said he was too late. By its reading, the paper made him file for arbitration by December 2016. That was 300 days after he left. His right to sue letter from the EEOC came more than four years after that.
On September 30, 2025, a federal judge in Boston said no. His paper could not cut short the time the age law gives him. On May 19, 2026, the court made it final. IBM may not hold him to that deadline.
Federal courts in New York have upheld IBM's deadline in other cases. So where you live matters. A date printed on your paper is not always the date the law gives you.
Why was the list of who else got cut missing from IBM's envelope?
Quick answer: IBM stopped handing it out in 2014. It shows who else was let go, and how old they were.
Since 1990 the law has asked for it. In a group layoff, they owe you the job titles and ages of everybody picked. And the ages of everybody kept.
ProPublica explained why in March 2018. Employers had begun making severance "contingent on a laid-off worker signing away the right to sue the company."
Until 2014, IBM handed out two lists. One showed the positions and ages of everybody laid off from the unit. The other showed everybody staying on. Then, ProPublica reported, IBM stopped.
It took "age" off the list of claims workers gave up. Age claims went to private arbitration instead, kept confidential, one person at a time. IBM's lawyers told the EEOC the list rule no longer applied, ProPublica reported.
And so the one sheet of paper that could show you a pattern never came.
What does the law say you are owed before you sign?
Quick answer: at least three weeks to think, and one more week to take it back.
Twenty one days, or forty five
The EEOC puts it plainly. "A waiver must provide the employee with at least 21 days to consider the offer." In a group layoff it is 45. If they make a real change to the final offer, the clock starts over.
Seven days to change your mind
After you sign, you get seven days to take it back. "The seven-day revocation period cannot be changed or waived by either party for any reason."
Plain words, and a lawyer
Your paper has to be in plain words. It has to tell you in writing to see a lawyer. The EEOC even points to a waiver a court threw out as too hard to understand. The case is Thomforde v. IBM.
| The IBM packet, 2016, age claim not signed away | The law, when you give up an age claim | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to think it over | 30 days | At least 21 days, 45 in a group layoff |
| Ages of who was cut and who stayed | Not given, his complaint says | Required in writing in a group layoff |
| Deadline for an age claim | 300 days by IBM's reading, then "deemed waived" | One federal court, in 2025 and 2026: a contract cannot shorten it |
| Told to see a lawyer | Yes, in the packet | Required, in writing |
The packet did tell him to see a lawyer. The deadline in the attachment is the part a judge threw out.
Isn't this just another pitch?
Quick answer: partly, and here is the part I will not dress up.
IBM denies all of it. IBM told The Register in 2022, "There was (and is) no policy or practice of age discrimination at IBM." The EEOC finding is reasonable cause, not a verdict. The rulings were about a deadline, not about what IBM did.
You did not have to work at IBM for this to matter. I picked it because its paper is in a court file you can open tonight.
Now me. We are the manufacturer. No middlemen and no markup. There is no monthly requirement, and nothing to hit to stay active.
I am not after your severance. You pay what a brand new shopper pays, not a penny less.
And I will not hand you a number to expect. Nobody honest can. If you need a paycheck, go get the job. I mean that.
What would I do first on Monday?
Quick answer: put the dates on paper, then write down the people.
Circle three dates
The day you got the packet. Day 21, or day 45. Then seven days after whenever you sign. Put all three on the fridge calendar.
Ask for the list
Did others go out the door with you? Email HR and ask for their job titles and ages. Keep your own copy somewhere that is not their laptop.
Let a lawyer read it before day 21
The paper should already tell you to. Do it while the clock still has days on it.
Write down the people, not the job title
Every name that would still take your call. The one you trained, the client who asked for you by name. Those are your references. No layoff list can take them from you.
Then ask five questions of whatever comes next, me included. What does it cost to start? Is there a monthly requirement? What happens to my customers if I stop? Where is the income disclosure? Who gets paid when I start?
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Where to check me
- The court's order in Rumsey v. IBM, September 30, 2025, and its final judgment, May 19, 2026. The packet, the "deemed waived" line, the 85.85% figure and the deadline struck down. The facts are his allegations. It means fine print can lose in court.
- The EEOC's guide to severance agreements. The 21, 45 and 7 days, the ages list and the lawyer line. Your clock, in the agency's own words.
- ProPublica, "Cutting 'Old Heads' at IBM," March 22, 2018. The two lists IBM stopped handing out in 2014. Reporting, not a court finding. It shows what can go missing from your envelope.
- The Register, March 24, 2022. IBM's own denial, quoted. Read their side too.
- IRS Publication 525. Severance counts as income. Plan on less landing than the letter says.
Every claim against IBM here is an allegation or an agency finding. IBM denies it.
What else are women asking me about this?
Do I have to sign my severance agreement right away?
No. If you are 40 or over, the law gives you at least 21 days. In a group layoff, it is 45. After you sign, you get 7 more days to take it back. Taking that time is not being difficult.
Is my severance taxed?
Yes. The IRS says you must count severance pay as income. So the number in the letter is not the number that lands in your account.
Should I put my severance into a business?
Not in the first month, and not into mine. If anybody wants your lump sum to get you started, walk away.
Here is what I want for you, whether or not we ever speak.
It is a Tuesday in October. The envelope is in the kitchen drawer, under the dish towels. You signed it on day 19, not day 2. A lawyer read it first, and you had the list.
You pour the second cup of coffee slowly, because nothing is due today. You become the one who signs on her own day, not theirs.
Worth reading next
- Am I being pushed out of my job at 50? Before the envelope comes.
- How much should a 50 year old woman have saved? No number you owe.
- How do you tell a real business from a repackaged course? Before anybody asks for your lump sum.
- How do you read an income disclosure? Question four, done properly.
- More for women building something
Twenty minutes, on video, no slides
The law gives you at least 21 days. Twenty minutes of them is all I am asking for. You ask, I answer. If it is not for you I would rather find out on the call.
You can always say no, and there is no follow up if you do.