Comment by pw0ncakes

What I'm talking about isn't that ridiculous. Paying 6 months' salary is a small cost compared to the cost of a termination lawsuit or a negative article being written about the firm.

I'm guessing they gave him 2 months pay and nothing for the move back, from Dubai (which is a dangerous place to lose your job, by the way). They also seem to have given him nothing in terms of exit counseling.

To answer the question you raised: his article and the fact that it got published is the leverage he had. I bet it's circulating around BCG right now. It has the potential to be a morale and image problem, and not the Goldman Sachs style of image problem (where people hate GS but consider them good at what they do).

There are rational reasons for firms to pay decent severance packages. It's not just something they do to be nice.