What To Do If You Lose Your Job
(For the most important thing, skip down to the very end of this post.)
Last month, 80,000 Americans were let go, laid off, downsized, rightsized, or made redundant, the biggest monthly drop in five years.
If it happens to you, what do you do?
Optimize your departure. On your last day (or before), be sure you are getting reimbursed for all unused vacation or sick days. Understand your severance payment. Clarify on what basis you’re leaving–ask your old employers what reference they plan to give you.
Take a day to whine. Get it out of your system. Go all out. But don’t take more than a day. The day after your whining day, get busy on designing your new life.
Let your family know. Especially family that depends on your income. You may be tempted to shield them from the bad news, but they need to know and deserve to know. And maybe they can help. In any case, you’ll need them on board for the next step, which is……
Review your budget. You may be tempted to comfort yourself with a new pair of shoes or a night on the town. But what’s more comforting than money in the bank?! Start to cut back. Lose the lattes. Bake your own bread. For other creative ways to save money, check here or here or here.
Let your network know. Your network consists of friends, family, neighbors, former employers, blog buddies–everyone who knows you and cares about you. Let them know you are in the market for a new job. They want to help you. People love to help other people. It makes them feel great.
Count up your assets. Remember Scrooge McDuck? He was always counting his money. For you, this might include unemployment benefits, which you’ll need to apply for. Also your savings and other sources of potential income. Also health care. Maybe you can extend your coverage under your former employer’s insurance plan. You can’t manage your assets if you don’t know what they are.
Get a stop-gap job. Meaning, any job. Even a “menial” one. The insurance could help. And, contrary to what you might think, potential employers might think more of you (as opposed to less) if you demonstrate the gumption to actually take a McJob.
Reevaluate your life. Take a look at where you’ve been, where you are, and where you want to be. Even before the lay-off, you may have been off-track. Set goals, or reset them, and map out a way to get them.
And the most important thing, to start directly after your whining day:
Set up a goal-a-day system. This is a plan whereby you do something every single day that gets you closer to finding a new job. Every single day. Work on your résumé, renew your contacts, research potential new employers—whatever. You’ll feel better.
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I hope not to need this advice, but I think Working Girl has it all covered.
Do everything you can to get away with all the contact lists, etc., that you’ve worked so hard to build. (e.g., email them to yourself) You will find (as I have) that these will be very helpful in future!
Sounds good. If you lose your job first thing you need to do is realize everything happens for a reason. If you lose your job, know that something else better is around the corner.
Just lost mine today. Guess I’m on my mourning day. But not really. I have already started to work on my next big thing. It is sort of scary given the economy, but as I was telling my mom, the only way someone can really hurt me would be to hand cuff me and throw me in jail…
One thing I learned from this page is that I have to call the unemployment office next Monday.
They have told me that I’m technically still employed for the next month or so. Therefore, I can still count on a few paychecks until I find a new job.
So far, I have not cried just yet, and somehow, I have a feeling I was already out tract as someone pointed out above.
My question now is probably to find out if I should pay off the credit cards that I have and preserve as much cash as possible…
In terms of assets, by the time my position is eliminated I will have around 30 000 dollars in the bank and I will owe around 10 000. I’m thinking I should be able to survive 6 months with 20 thousands dollars or more, if I should receive any assistance from the state.
I wish to tank the author for the article.
Suicide is not an option
Kunta…
I haven’t lost my job yet but I’m preparing for the worst. I have started to save every penny and take every shortcut I can in some nutty ways. I just saved 15$ on our water bill. This will sound nuts but 15$ goes toward a credit card I may not be able to pay. How we did it… Take a plastic 55 gallon drum, put it next to the washer and fill it instead of the sewer pipe. We filter the water with shear material from an old curtain and a rubber band from the broccoli. We used the water for every flush. Bath water works better because it is more convenient. When you shower…plug that drain. It is amazing how much 1 flush can take. Use a bucket to dip the water out and put it in the back of the tank or just pour it into the stool. Saves on cleaning the toilet too. Ha Ha.
I lost my job about 6 months ago and I’ve filled out applications in person, online and at the kiosk inside certain stores, and still haven’t received a reply back yet. I do start to wonder will this period ever end. I’ve worked for 26 years and I consider myself a very hard and committed worker.
I am doing some yardwork and pressure washing houses for people so that’s keeping me busy at times but I really miss the structure that a job gives me.
I am in constant contact with friends updating them on my job situation. Is there anything else that I could be doing to end this unemployment period?