> The main reason why severance is offered is to keep people from portraying the company in a bad light. If anti-disparagement clauses were made illegal, fewer

> The main reason why severance is offered is to keep people from portraying the company in a bad light. If anti-disparagement clauses were made illegal, fewer companies would offer severance. Then let's make anti-disparagement clauses illegal and severance packages mandatory. Companies afraid of bad press may then be motivated to be even more generous than they would have otherwise. Not only would they have to pay you enough to sign, they'd have to pay you enough to make you happy enough that you don't speak against them. They'd only have a carrot but no stick. Frankly, if a company doesn't want to be portrayed in a bad light, it should endeavor to avoid doing things worthy of disparagement.