Hello,

I'm a bit lost on this, probably because I'm not familiar with US Work laws. Why did Katherine Maher received $623,286 on severance pay? Was she fired?

Hello Paulo,

When an employee leaves, you would always get a statement on the vein of "mutual agreement" or that "so and so is leaving" without any further details. When being asked about a specific situation Talent and Culture (= Human Resources) never speaks of individual cases. If I was the one leaving, I would not want the organization to give any details on my behalf, more so if I had a role with public exposure such as a C-level. In the same way, the organization does not want further details regarding the cause and I imagine there are very legal reasons for it.

In my experience that is regardless of which party initiated (the employee willingness to leave, or the organization asking for the position/role/person to leave or whatever over situation). It was the same in France with past employers: terminations of contracts are publicly quiet.

What I got explained is that in the USA a contract termination might come with a non disparage clause. It restricts the parties from criticizing each other (if it is mutual) essentially meaning neither the organization nor the employee would speak about the departure. The clause details what happens if a party breaches it. I imagine the former employee would have to reimburse part (or all) of the severance package or the organization would pay a lump sump to the employee. And I imagine there might be legal consequences. Then as I often said: I am not a lawyer.

In short I don't think either party can give any detail and regardless I think we should respect the privacy of the past employees.