Your corporate client is terminating the employment of an individual it thinks has done an awful job, with whom it shares completely differing views about how to run a business, and whom it never wants to darken its doorstep again. Whether because the employee has hired a lawyer and threatened legal action, or out of the goodness of its heart, your client is prepared to provide a severance payment in exchange for a release—but as a condition of the deal, the employee must agree never to say a bad word about the Company, its owners, shareholders, family, customers, business partners, and so forth.
And, your client insists, if she violates that agreement, she needs to repay all the money forked over in settlement, and a penalty to boot.