He's Helped Employees Win $11.4 Million in Severance. Here's Why HR Isn't On Your Side.
Think about the last time someone in HR asked if you were happy at work. Did you answer honestly? My guest this week, Dan Goodman, wants you to know that question is never as innocent as it sounds. In twenty seven months, his agency has helped employees recover $11.4 million in severance they were never going to be offered on their own.
Dan spent twenty years doing this work for free, helping friends and family recover commissions their employers had shorted them. He built an app called True Commish to formalize it, but getting salespeople to fight for their own money was, in his words, like pushing a snowball up a hill in a desert. Then he posted about severance on LinkedIn almost as an afterthought. That one post hit 400,000 impressions and brought him fifteen people asking for help. He worked those cases for free for four months, until a stranger flatly told him he was a fool for giving away work that valuable. The next day he pivoted from True Commish to the Dan Goodman Employment Advisory. Twenty three months later, more than 9,000 people had filled out his intake form. Today he's closed 3,800 paid engagements across 13 countries.
Dan calls what happens to most of his clients the gerbil wheel effect. It's what happens when a company treats you so irrationally that you spend all your energy trying to make sense of something that was never meant to make sense, and you quietly start blaming yourself instead of the system. He sees it most often attached to one specific document: the performance improvement plan. And PIPs are not rare. Formal performance write-ups, the paper trail companies build before a for-cause firing, climbed nearly 30% between 2020 and 2023, and were logged against more than 4% of the U.S. workforce in 2023 alone.
Severance itself carries its own gap. A 2026 benchmarking report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas found women were paid 4.6% less in severance than men, on average, across every industry. If you're quietly wondering whether you got a fair deal on your way out, or whether you're staring down a PIP with no real chance to pass, this episode is your blueprint. Document everything before you think you'll need it. Negotiate your severance before you ever start the job. And stop assuming the person in HR asking if you're happy is on your side.
TRANSCRIPT:
Erica: Welcome to the Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floor podcast, the podcast where we get real about the challenges women face in work, life, and leadership. I'm your host, Erica Rooney, HR executive, keynote speaker, and executive coach, and I'm on a mission to get more women into positions of power and keep them there. This is the space where we call it the paradoxes. Being told to lean in but not too far, to speak up but not too loudly, be ambitious but not too ambitious.
Erica: Does that sound familiar? We're over all that. Here, we break down the sticky floors that keep us stuck, from imposter syndrome and perfectionism to burnout and fear, and give you real strategies to shatter those glass ceilings once and for all. So if you're ready to rewrite the rules, own your power, and take your career and life to the next level, you're in the right place.
Erica: Today's guest is tackling the silent power struggle that keeps high achieving women afraid to challenge the corporate system. What I love about this is he isn't just talking about it. He's actually building the defense structure to fight back and get employees what they deserve. Dan Goodman is the founder of his agency called the Dan Goodman Employment Advisory, where he acts as the employee strategic counter to HR. A corporate veteran who saw the unfair tactics from the inside, Dan now brings his expertise to help employees navigate toxic workplaces, false PIPs, and predatory compensation.
Erica: He has successfully increased separation payouts by over $2,750,000, y'all. He understands that for too long, companies have convinced us that they hold all the power. Dan, I am so thrilled you're here. How are you?
Dan: I'm doing fantastic this morning, and thank you for that wonderful introduction. I am really excited to be here as well.
Erica: I just want to
Dan: add one little correction. We were working on some old data. We are now up to $11,400,000 in severance increases in the last twenty seven months right now. So we're really excited to be here.
Erica: 11.4?
Dan: Yes.
Erica: That is incredible, Dan.
Dan: We have helped clients, over 3,800 paid client engagements at this point, in about twenty seven months. And the problem just exists everywhere. We've worked with folks in 13 different countries, every level, every industry, every role. No one escapes these issues.
Erica: Well, the numbers don't lie, that's for sure. Dan, I first encountered you because of our dear friend, and she's also been a guest on this podcast, Amy Reinhart. And I'm so glad that she did, because when I heard you speak on severance and PIPs and this false narrative that the employers hold all the power, I wish I'd had you over a year ago. And actually, this week marks the one year anniversary from when I left corporate. But I would love to know, Dan, how did you get involved in this work?
Dan: It's really a unique story. My passion has been helping salespeople verify commission pay, identify errors, and be able to recoup those errors of their earned money. I've been doing this for twenty years for family and friends on a manual basis, and I created an application with a developer and started a company called True Commish to do so. And that was like pushing a snowball up a hill in a desert, to get salespeople to proactively take action and stand up and fight back. As a way to promote the business, I started posting on LinkedIn. I put out a post about severance, and it got 400,000 impressions. And I had fifteen people reaching out to me to ask me to help them with their severance. So I did that for free for about four months, and then I had a call with some guy from Israel. He basically told me that I was a sucker in Hebrew for not charging people for the great value that I was providing. So that very next day, I did a pivot from True Commish and started the Dan Goodman Employment Advisory, and it's been unbelievable. I've had more than 9,000 people fill out my background form in twenty three months since I launched this.
Erica: Oh my gosh, that's incredible. Why do you think it is that companies have been so successful in convincing these high achievers that they have all the power? And what is that moment that an employee should realize that they really need that professional advocacy?
​RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Ready to close your own AI gap and get more women into rooms of power? Join HER Collective, Erica's community for women in corporate America.
- Never miss an episode of Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors.
- Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, Erica's book on shattering limiting beliefs at work.
- Dan Goodman Employment Advisory.
- Email Dan directly.
- True Commish, Dan's earlier commission recovery app.
- Amy Reinhart, mentioned as a mutual connection and past podcast guest.
- Lauren Greif, mentioned as a mutual connection and past podcast guest.
RELATED EPISODES:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Is a performance improvement plan (PIP) usually a real chance to keep your job?
Not according to employment advisor Dan Goodman, who calls most PIPs a documentation exercise rather than a genuine path to improvement. He's reviewed his clients' PIPs on more than 400 calls and says he's never found one worth defending against on its own terms. Instead, he advises building a factual record that counters the plan rather than trying to hit its goals.
What does Dan Goodman mean by the "gerbil wheel effect"?
The gerbil wheel effect is Dan Goodman's term for what happens when an employer's actions are so irrational that an employee spends all their energy trying to make sense of it, and starts blaming themselves instead of the system. He says the fix is to flip the switch: stop defending yourself against the narrative and start building a truthful one from the employer's own actions.
When should you negotiate your severance package?
Dan Goodman's answer is before you accept the job, not after you're let go. He recommends reviewing restrictive clauses and compensation packages up front so a pre-negotiated severance is already in place if your role changes materially or you're terminated later.
MORE FROM ME
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Hi, I'm Erica!
In the last 15 years, I climbed to Chief People Officer, 6x'd my income, walked away from a culture that stopped matching my values, wrote two books, and built HER Collective to help thousands of women rise to power and lead in the age of AI. I've learned a thing or two about smashing ceilings and closing gaps, and Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors is where I open the playbook, the receipts, and the real stories to share it all with you.
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