My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: MA
At the end of November, it was decided that I should leave my post as co-founder a small startup (Delaware C-Corp if it matters). It was mostly a mutual decision, but I'm calling it "termination" because the CEO made the final call that it wasn't going to work out. We parted on mostly good terms. We didn't agree on a specific plan at all, and we didn't discuss what my final day of employment would be.
On Dec 1, he offered me a severance package (in exchange for signing a separation agreement) with 1 month's pay, but he said that apparently our paychecks come at the START of each pay period. So basically, the paycheck that I just received in my back account on Dec 1st was for the NEXT 2 weeks, and the company would give me an additional 2-weeks of pay. I've never received pay stubs, but he sent me some PDF printouts from Quickbooks (our payroll service) and the "Pay Date" and "Period Beginning" fields are the same date.
If this were a normal job, I could look back at my pay history and make sure I've received a paycheck for every period that I've worked. In this case though, there's a catch: as a co-founder, I worked for a long time with no salary. When we started receiving a salary, there was no official communication of what the start date was. And we never received pay stubs. My assumption was that paychecks corresponded to the previous pay period.
On top of that, the separation agreement feels way too restrictive for my comfort. Release of Claims, Nondisparagement, excessive Transitional Services. I'd almost rather just not get paid, and not sign all my rights away.
So: can the company force me to give back that money? Is it a reasonable expectation? And am I being unreasonable for feeling like it's kind of shady?

