Instead of having mass layoffs, some struggling companies offer certain workers a voluntary buyout. It’s a package of severance pay and benefits to encourage staff members to end their employment there.

        Brad Karsh, president of JobBound and JB Training Solutions in Chicago, says you should base your decision to accept a buyout on both personal factors and business factors.

        The personal factors have to do with your own career goals. Karsh says sometimes people who get a buyout offer accept it because for years they’d wished they could open their own restaurant or become a consultant, and now the severance check will be the seed money.

        “For people who were thinking about leaving, this is the best news they ever heard,” he says. “Others have to pause.”

        He says companies usually offer buyouts to managers and executives only.

        “Typically they do it for older workers who are making more money,” he says. “It’s a good way to trim a workforce, trim your payroll and deliver the smallest amount of pain.”

        If you haven’t secretly wished someone would pay you to leave your job, the decision whether to take a voluntary buyout is a more complicated one. In addition to personal factors such as your finances, career goals, and your family or other obligations, another factor is the business itself.

        “If you believe in the company, you might say, ‘I happen to know the basic components of the company are good, and we have a new menu,’” he says. “Or you might think, this is a sinking ship.”

        Also consider whether the restaurant industry in your geographic area is struggling or if a certain segment, such as casual dining, is letting people go.

        One thing no one ever knows is whether there will be another round of buyouts in the future. Karsh says some companies do five rounds of buyouts in five years, then stop offering them. Others don’t do buyouts at all but have layoffs. Don’t count on there being another round, or on the next round being a better offer.

        “In the second round they might be desperate, so the offer might be the same or worse,” Karsh says.

        Try to negotiate a better offer.

        “You have to be polite about it and appropriate,” he says. “You owe it to yourself to negotiate once. Don’t go overboard.”

        For example, he says, if your company offers you five months severance pay, ask for eight months. Make a point of noting how many years you’ve been working there.

        “Maybe they will say these are set packages, or they might say, you have been here a while, so we will give you six months.”

        If you get a voluntary buyout offer, there is a time limit for you to decide whether to accept, but you don’t have to sign anything right away.

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