No.
And when you refuse, they’ll ask you to initial on it in some way that you have declined it or refused to sign it. Don’t do that either. They’ll end up treating that as a signature.
If it ever has to be produced in court (unlikely, but you never know) then they can’t prove you ever saw it.
And if you are shown it and not given a chance to run it by a lawyer, as far as I’m concerned you haven’t seen it. Because you haven’t been given a chance to comprehend it and agree or disagree to the implications.
They can’t make you sign it. They can’t make you initial it. They’re firing you either way. They will probably have one of them sign it and the other witness it indicating that they showed it to you but that doesn’t mean much.
Nobody in that room is your friend at that moment and nobody there is interested in doing anyone a favor that doesn’t help the company.
You are no longer a member of the tribe. They have severed the relationship they had with you that obligates you to assist them with anything. You will get your stuff and go. Everyone around you is now a member of a hostile tribe and you need to leave.
I was railroaded by an asshole at one of my old jobs. This guy turned off the wrong server, shut down 20 video editing suites, and managed to convince our manager it was my fault. I didn’t even touch the server he shut down. The boss chose to believe him and I was let go.
Before I left his office, he asked me to sign a “termination agreement”. I asked him if that would be contingent on my ability to get unemployment insurance and he said no. I loosened my belt and shoved it down the back of my pants and wiped my ass with it good and hard. Then I threw it on his desk and walked out.
Don’t sign anything.
EVER.
It depends on what the paper says.
I recently got fired and it was deemed a dismissal but it was more of a layoff. But on the paper it said something like terminated with cause. I asked them to amend the paper and I would sign it despite them saying they wouldn’t fight unemployment I didn’t want something to say I had been terminated with cause.
They did amend it and I signed. Which was helpful because while they didn’t “fight” unemployment they said I had been terminated three years earlier than I had been and with cause. When unemployment called me I said I had a piece of paper that said otherwise and they asked me to make a copy of it and send it to them which got me unemployment that had been previously been denied.
You are already being fired, don’t sign anything you’re not comfortable signing and if it will hold up any sort of due pay, make sure they will make any amendments you need made.
