What to do if you sense a layoff is coming.

It seems like posts about layoffs are happening every week on here, if not every day. If you suspect a layoff is coming at your organization, here are 3 things you can do to prepare and set yourself up for success:

1️⃣ 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨. It’s much easier to grab stats and gather results from your projects/campaigns when you’re still employed and have access to all of your docs and reports.

2️⃣ 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐍𝐎𝐖. It’s much more pleasant to reconnect with folks BEFORE you need something - it makes it feel less transactional and reaps more supportive relationships over the long term.

3️⃣ 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 ‘𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝’ 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝐬𝐢𝐱 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬. I don’t love the term ‘emergency fund’ (more on that in a future post), so think of this as a fund that can support you while you find what’s next. I used to say 3 months of savings was sufficient for this, but I’m seeing job searches last closer to ~6 months on average now, so better to be safe than stressed. Ramit Sethi has been posting about this lately, if you need some support and direction on how to execute this.