About The Separation Index

What we are

The Separation Index is a workforce accountability platform that tracks how companies treat employees on the way out. We publish confirmed, user-submitted reports on layoff practices, termination methods, severance packages, outplacement support, and communication quality during separations. We also index WARN Act layoff filings from state labor agencies and cross-reference them against active job postings to surface companies hiring while simultaneously executing layoffs.

Why we exist

Being laid off via a 2-minute Zoom call. Learning your job was eliminated through a news article. Receiving severance only if you sign an NDA. These are not rare exceptions — they are common practices at companies of every size and industry. The Separation Index exists because employees have had no visibility into how companies actually handle separations until after they have already accepted an offer and given years of their career. We are changing that.

How it works

Employees submit reports about their separation experiences through a structured submission flow. Reports cover how notice was delivered, whether severance was offered and on what terms, what outplacement support was provided, and how the company communicated throughout the process. Each report carries one of three credibility tiers — email-verified, corroborated against a public WARN Act filing, or unverified — and is weighted accordingly. Companies receive a Separation Score based on their aggregate behavior. Scores update as new reports come in. Companies cannot pay to improve their scores.

What we track

We track separation practices at companies across all industries. We monitor WARN Act filings from California, Texas, and New Jersey — 71,424 filings on record — and cross-reference them against active job postings. Our Severance Benchmark aggregates anonymous severance data by industry and tenure. We are a sister platform to The Respect Index at therespectindex.com, which tracks hiring practices.

The NDA question

Many separation agreements include NDAs or non-disparagement clauses. We take this seriously. Before every separation report submission, we show a notice that cannot be skipped explaining that factual accounts of how a separation was handled are generally not covered by NDAs — but that submitters should review their specific agreements. We do not encourage users to breach valid legal agreements. We do not publish confidential business information.

Our principles

We publish what people report. We do not remove reports because a company finds them unflattering. We protect the anonymity of every report submitter. We apply the same standards to every company regardless of size, industry, or advertising budget. We are not a consumer reporting agency and our data may not be used for employment screening decisions. Our WARN Act data is sourced directly from state labor agencies and published with full DOL attribution.

Who built this

The Separation Index was built by a team of communications and technology professionals who experienced firsthand how companies treat employees during separations. The platform is operated independently with no advertiser relationships or employer funding. The Separation Index is operated by The Respect Index, LLC.

Contact

General inquiries: hello@theseparationindex.com · Press and media: press@theseparationindex.com · Legal: legal@theseparationindex.com · Privacy and data requests: privacy@theseparationindex.com

Our current scoring system rates company-level separation and severance practices

Individual employees are not identified in our current scoring system — scores describe company-level behavior, not specific managers, HR representatives, or employees: how a company handles layoffs, what severance it offers, and how it communicates during separations. Reports that name individual people are rejected or removed. This is both a design principle and a moderation rule enforced at every submission.

Our independence

No company, employer, or investor can change a separation score or suppress a report on this platform. We operate independently with no employer funding. See the full Independence Charter on The Respect Index for the complete set of commitments that govern both platforms.

• No payment influences a rating or score. Certification and award fees buy display rights only.
• We do not remove email-confirmed reports because a company complains.
• We do not suppress a company profile because it scores poorly.
• We publish our scoring methodology openly.