My employer is laying off more employees. In the meanwhile, I decide to leave anyway. My question is -- should I ask my manager to lay me off or should I resign? If I ask my manager to lay me off, I can get $25,000 severance package. But HR record will show that I am laid off. I don't know whether this record of being laid off will affect my future job hunting or not. There are always questions like "were you laid off?" or "why did you leave your current or last employer?" in questionaires provided by potential new employers. So I wonder this record would hurt me in some sense. So money or record?

I think in the current market being laid off is not as bad as you might have thought.I'd present it to a future employer much as you present it here, saying "my boss needed to cut costs and I had a job to go to, so we worked out a deal".It is always good to show that you left on good terms.I am assuming you have another job to go to ?

Thanks for the input. Yes, I have another job to go to.

Hinstings: I don't know whether this record of being laid off will affect my future job hunting or not.It won't to any huge extent. Chances are that the people who are reviewing the resume have also been laid off, so it's not a bad thing.

If you have a job to go to already it shouldn't matter. I would take the money and go. $25K doesn't sound that much in banking, but I am guessing you may not have been there long ?You have to treat a layoff as a positive and given people in the city move jobs every few years you should take it as a learning experience for the next role. SG

Laid off != Fired

I agree with other posters. 2 yrs down the road, no body is gonna know you were laid off .... all they'll care about is where you are coming from and what you know. I can bet you if you told this story to a trader at a major shop and you decided to resign over taking money, they'll think of that as a bad record anyway. Take the money and go if you like the new job better.

Listen, in this market there is NO shame of getting laid off. My friend in GS said 25% of VPs in several deparments got the ax just a couple of months ago and they are not done. So who is exactly safe nowadays? No one.

QuoteOriginally posted by: cougar91Listen, in this market there is NO shame of getting laid off. My friend in GS said 25% of VPs in several deparments got the ax just a couple of months ago and they are not done. They got rid of the chaff; I'm sure they kept the wheat.