I WAS fired the other day. I believe the preferred phrase is “terminated,” which is how my former employer, Byliner, a digital publishing company and subscription service in San Francisco, put it. I was informed that our “burn rate” was too high, that we needed to show investors that we were serious about reducing it, and that while my loss of a job was unfortunately going to be a part of that reduction, this had nothing to do with the quality of my work. Soon thereafter, an email arrived from the company’s founder and chief executive saying how much he had enjoyed working with me.

Around the same time, a termination agreement pinged into my inbox. Much of it set forth standard-issue language resolving such matters as date of termination, the vesting of options, the release of all claims against the company, and the return of company property. I think I get to keep last year’s Christmas gift of an iPad, and the previous year’s bottle of wine has long been drunk, but I must send back any company files in my possession. So far, so good.

What brings me up short is clause No. 12: No Disparagement. “You agree,” it reads, “that you will never make any negative or disparaging statements (orally or in writing) about the Company or its stockholders, directors, officers, employees, products, services or business practices, except as required by law.” If I don’t agree to this nondisparagement clause, I will not receive my severance — in this case, the equivalent of two weeks of pay. Two weeks? Must be hard times out in San Francisco, or otherwise why the dirt parachute — and by the way, is that the sort of remark I won’t be allowed to make if I sign clause No. 12?

I would prefer not to, as Bartleby the Scrivener put it so succinctly in Herman Melville’s classic tale of bureaucratic resistance. When I shared that inclination with one of my superiors at Byliner, the news traveled up the chain of command. And I was soon informed that the president wished to assure me that there is nothing unusual about such clauses, that media people like herself sign them all the time, and that Byliner might even agree to a mutual nondisparagement clause. That means that if I don’t say anything mean about the company, its representatives won’t say anything unkind about me.