While losing a job is rarely cause for celebration, the engineer described the layoff as a “blessing in disguise” due to the alleged toxic work culture in their new team.
Amid a wave of job cuts across the global tech sector, a laid-off Qualcomm engineer in India is making headlines for walking away with a severance package worth well over a year of their regular salary.
Taking to the anonymous forum Reddit, the senior engineer detailed how a combination of standard severance, tenure payouts, and waived relocation clawbacks added up to a 15-month financial cushion, turning a sudden exit into a welcome escape from a “toxic” workplace.
“I didn’t think much of the financial perks of these layoffs but came to know that I would be getting around a year’s worth of salary,” the user wrote in the viral Reddit post.
Viral severance breakdown
The engineer, who had recently transferred internally to a new team in a different city, provided a detailed calculation of the payout. According to the post, the package includes:
- A standard 3 months’ severance pay
- 1 extra month’s pay for signing the agreement within three days
- 5 months’ pay based on tenure
- 2 months from a relocation bonus they no longer have to pay back
- Approximately 1-2 months of leave encashment
This totalled roughly 12 months of salary, the techie shared.
On top of this, the engineer noted they will remain on the payroll and receive their regular salary until the end of January (another three months), bringing the total financial cushion to 15 months of pay.
“So overall 15 months salary without much effort from my side,” the techie noted. “I have a 15 months financial security so won’t rush into things as of now. The timing of this layoffs couldn’t be any better for my situation.”
The user also clarified in the comments that the relocation bonus clawback waiver—usually required if an employee resigns within a certain timeframe—was a significant factor in boosting the payout.
“It’s an amount you get for changing to another team in a different city. This usually has a clawback of 2 years. I don’t have to give that back as I got laid off,” they explained.
Escaping a ‘toxic’ work culture
While losing a job is rarely cause for celebration, the engineer described the layoff as a “blessing in disguise” due to the alleged toxic work culture in their new team.
“I was doing well in my previous team and I had moved cities thinking that I could be closer to home. A few months in and I realised I had dug myself a grave. The work culture is the absolute worst,” the techie wrote.
The user claimed they faced personal attacks from management, contrasting this with their previous manager who “used to call me a python wizard.”
“What I did mind though were personal attacks. I had my own interviewer tell me that my interview was horrible. My python skills were horrible. Not much support from anyone and just gave me vibes that I don’t even belong here,” the engineer, who stated they are an IIT graduate, wrote. “I used to think about resigning daily (scenario where I had to pay my relocation bonus) but now this is a blessing in disguise.”
The post garnered significant attention on the subreddit, with other users chiming in with their own layoff experiences and severance packages.
Another laid-off employee from Hyderabad shared a similar financial breakdown in a separate post, noting they were offered three months’ pay, plus tenure-based pay, plus an extra month for signing early, while remaining on the payroll until January 31st.
