<prompt> Human: My company had been struggling financially for the last couple of years due to changing market conditions. In May, my VP contacted me to let me know that as a cost reduction measure I would either need to accept a 16 temporary salary reduction along with the rest of the leadership team or leave the company. I ultimately decided to take the temporary reduction since we were getting close to releasing the next version of the companies flagship product whose predecessor is currently the leader in its segment. I had been working toward this for the last couple of years and was personally invested in seeing it succeed. This is the third profitable software product that I was either principally andor integrally responsible for at this company.On Monday, shortly after receiving an email from the owner announcing that he had sold company to a large multi-national 19.6 B market cap, I received a call from my VP notifying me that my position would not be transitioned. No reason was provided. Based on the perceived value I believed I had provided to the company you can understand that I was shocked to hear this. Especially since all the products that I was responsible for would continue to be a great source of revenue for the acquiring company. Monday afternoon, I received the severance agreement from HR and it seemed really low to me. It was essentially 5 weeks pay - thats it. They generate 5-6 times that in revenue from just one sale of one product for which I was principally responsible. Upon following up with HR, I learned their standard package which is not documented AFAIK is 1 week pay per year of service capped at 8 years. To make matters worse, they are attempting to only pay me based on the date my company was acquired by them 5 years ago even though we negotiated that all acquired employees would have a seniority date that reflected their hire date with my company instead of the acquisition date. Even in their HR system it shows a seniority date for me of May 2007 and a hire date of May 2013 - the date my company was acquired. They are also basing my severance offer on my current temporarily reduced salary instead of my previous salary - even though I suspect it is no longer necessary after the large infusion of cash.The way this was handled almost feels punitive to me even though I have had only glowing reviews and am well-liked by all my co-workers. I am truly at a loss for why or what would warrant such disregard. I understand that maybe my position is now redundant with regard to the larger acquiring company - ok - fine with that. But why such a harsh severance offer in this circumstance?Some questions:1 Has anyone ever heard of a standard severance policy that maxes out at 8 years of service?2 Typically, how successful are people at negotiating severance agreements in these circumstances - with or without the aid of an employment lawyer?3 What would you do?Any and all advice is greatly appreciated - thanks in advance!  <response>: You really have no leverage in this situation. However, I would call HR to try to get them to use your original hire date for severance calculation purposes. I think that is a reasonable request. 