Hi, I have been working as Software Engineer at a mid level tech company (~4000 employees) in the bay area, CA. I was informed of my role being terminated with last day of access to work on April 29th, 2026 and separation day of May 10th, 2026 (because I'm currently on parental leave)
We had a baby on April 13th, 2026. I informed my manager and skip manager through slack around January that I will be expecting to take paternity leave around April which was the due date. Now as part of a minor layoffs (10% of my org, ~100 people) due to performance issues (“low performance” as mentioned in the termination call) they have terminated my employment. I feel since I told them that around early January, they have started targeting me. In the following performance review of 2025 which happened in February 2026, they had purposely given me an average rating but still that was an average rating and there were no warnings prior to that of any actual low performance. Now we have 12 weeks parental leave policy at my company (along with state benefits), 2 weeks into mine, they have terminated me saying I can’t apply for more weeks than the current approved 4 weeks parental leave. I was considering whether to take the remaining 8 weeks now based on the baby's situation. But now I lose that 8 weeks of paternity leave benefits. They have offered the general severance plan of our company which is 8 weeks base salary + 1 week salary/per year of employment which is common for everyone.
Please let me know if there is any case that can be made for the above.