Rather than allowing your employer to dictate when and how you leave, try negotiating your own terms, advises Joe Mullings, who heads a recruiting firm in Delray Beach, Fla.

“You can say, ‘Look, you don’t want to terminate me. I will resign,’ ” he says. Remind your employer that by voluntarily stepping down, you will be freeing the company from the expense of unemployment insurance—and possible future litigation, he says.