"The company wants me to sign a general release agreement" and what are they paying you for signing it? And as you already got the severance forms... Unlikely to be contingent. Read the documents yourself, instead of asking someone else to read them for you. It needs to be spelled clearly if it is.

@TymoteuszPaul the severance document states "the following terms pertain to your separation of employment: ...you will receive $x in severance ...you will sign and return the attached release form by the due date". So I'm not really sure.

Signing a release form for a severance package is perfectly normal and standard practice. You should still carefully read the ENTIRE agreement and make sure you understand what your are signing. Get a lawyer if you can't read it yourself. HR is not your friend here.

Unless you plan to sue them, agreeing to binding arbitration isn't giving up much, and they're buying your cooperation with the severance package. Up to you to decide whether you are comfortable being bought, but if it isn't worth spending some money to have a lawyer and use you on whether this contains any traps, it probably isn't worth worrying about. This is very standard quid-pro-quo. Take the deal or don't. Entirely up to you. My severance package was good enough for me to sign it; others who wanted to start an age discrimination lawsuit didn't; both choices are correct.

@Hilmar HR is never your friend. Never. Never ever.

What jurisdiction?

What jurisdiction? In the United Kingdom, if you are made redundant you are obliged to seek legal advice on any confidential no-further-claim severance package like this (I was) and the company has to pay for that (mine did).

Check that the document don't contain a clause forbidding you from working for a competitor for the next X years. That would limit your options of finding a new position.

@EarlGrey: you are VERY wrong about this one. HR represents the interests of the company. As long as your and the company's interests are aligned, HR can be an extremely valuable resource (if they are reasonably good). I certainly have gotten great help in more than one occasion especially if there are tricky medical or family issues involved.

@Hilmar HR represents the interests of the company. Because HR complied with the law or made you some concessions, it does not make it your friend. At best the implementer of what the company conceded you. Let's not think of a company "persons". They are simply juridical persons. Then, you may have had a good partner in the HR. However, how can you be sure they provided you the best possible? maybe they provided you "50", but by an external support (i.e. a lawyer) you may have got "100".

HR is your friend when you are unemployed and looking for a job.

@EarlGrey HR is the enemy of your enemy when someone else in the company is doing something that could get the company in trouble, and you would benefit if that person stopped. Some people would describe this as HR being your friend in this limited circumstance.

@EarlGrey: when someone on your team passes away, HR can help with communication (both internal and external), handling paperwork with the family, preparing a memorial service, etc.. I was sure happy to had their support and didn't have to handle this entirely on my own.

While you didn't mention it, it is worth noting that you can't sign over your rights to speak critically about the company in exchange for your severance, although you of course want to avoid libel and slander (and many companies don't take well to people who badmouth their prior employers).

@MichaelHall come on! When you are looking for a job HR is your enemy because it is a filter in between you and the technical people that can evaluate you. On the other hand, If I am looking for someone, HR filters the thousands of profiles that flow in. Am I happy? Absolutely not, I would rather be paid by the company to do myself the filtering, rather than having the company paying some "professionals" to do that filtering. HR people exist to support themselves, to fill linkedin of crappy motivational posts in their coffee breaks and to defend companies from employes. Full stop

@EarlGrey There are quite a lot of companies where HR are the people who interview and hire you. HR is definitely not your enemy when they’re the ones who can give you a contract.

@Hilmar, that's pretty much all HR's job. It sounds more like they were happy to have your support.

@EarlGrey, come on yourself! Plenty of glass half full comments to temper your glass half empty perspective, so I'll just leave it at that. I've always gotten along great with HR....

@EarlGrey: Perhaps I’d say, HR is never exactly your friend (in the sense of caring about you for your own sake) but it can be a very good ally (it will help you when your interests are aligned, and they often are).