751: The Layoff Playbook: Four Steps to Take Before You Touch Your Resume

[00:00:00] Scott Anthony Barlow: You just got laid off, or maybe you know that a layoff is coming. Either way, the result is the same. Your first instinct is to fix it. Polish the resume, post to LinkedIn, start applying to every job on Monday morning. That's the impulse. It's also the move that turns a three-month job search into a nine-month And the worst part is it feels like you're doing everything right the entire time.

[00:00:24] You're busy, you're productive, you're applying, and every single move is pulling you further and further from the outcome that you actually want. What nobody tells you is that it's not the economy, it's not the market, and it's actually not you. Most laid off professionals make the same moves in the first couple of weeks.

[00:00:44] Those moves tend to cost them months. A small percentage do the opposite, and they end up making a much more effective transition in less than half the time while also getting the work that they actually want. The real question is, what are the differences? I'm Scott Anthony Barlow. This is Happen To Your Career.

[00:01:04] In this episode, we're unpacking the first 48 hours after a layoff. Not the generic update your resume advice, but the specific moves that decide whether the next three months are the worst stretch of your career or potentially the most valuable. Treating the layoff as a problem to escape instead of leverage to use.

[00:01:24] This is actually the hardest to hear, and it's the mistake many people don't even think about. It's very nuanced. There's a principle from behavioral economics called the framing effect. This comes from Kahneman and Tversky's work on prospect theory, and the core finding here is that in the exact same situation, if it's framed two different ways, it produces two completely different decisions.

[00:01:49] Here's an example of what the study looked like. People offered a medical procedure described as a 90% survival rate, they would accept it. The same exact people and the same exact procedure where it was described as a 10% mortality rate would refuse it. Same numbers, different frame, different result, different life.

[00:02:10] A layoff works exactly the same way. If it's framed as an emergency, the layoff pushes you to immediately sprint to any job that stops the bleeding, any job that gets you out of this. You take the first offer that comes back. You end up one rung lower than where you were, and then probably you do it all over again in 18 months.

[00:02:31] However, if we frame this as leverage, that same event becomes the single biggest reset the floor moment in your career can be incredibly valuable. I've gone through this myself, actually several times over. It's the one time you have a clean slate on compensation, on title, on role, industry, and a legitimate reason to take a moment before committing.

[00:02:55] Melissa is one of the clearest examples we've covered. She was laid off and the pressure to take that first decent offer was enormous. Bills, mortgage, financial pressure, like feeling that every week without a paycheck was a week that she was falling further behind She didn't give in, she refused to take the next best job whatever was thrown her way.

[00:03:17] Instead, she actually used this window to figure out what she actually wanted not just would stop the anxiety and then she ended up in what she called her ideal career. One of the things that we've seen since we started this work is that less than 15% of professionals that our team is working with are actually taking a significant pay cut.

[00:03:36] It's very, very small. What that means is said another way, 85% of people are keeping similar or better pay when they are making a change, a pivot, career change, etcetera. By the way, this isn't because they're lucky it's actually not because they've had some hidden massive advantage but it's because they're refusing to treat the layoff as an emergency to survive, and instead they're treating it as leverage to use.

[00:04:05] Handled right, this could be an opportunity where your income resets to a higher amount. But the great news is that you get to decide, and it's so much more than just about income. It's often the moment where people can finally stop tolerating a career that was no longer a good fit for them and start building one that actually fits who you are.

[00:04:23] Stabilize before you strategize. Before you touch that resume, I want you to take four steps. One, do not sign the severance right away. Most packages have some kind of review window associated with it. Find out what that review window. Often it can be as much as 21 to 45 days. Signing fast can leave weeks of pay on the table or many other things too.

[00:04:46] If there's anything ambiguous, like a non-compete, non-disparagement, scope of release, those are conversations that you want to have with an employment attorney. I would recommend not signing until someone who does that for a living has looked at it. Number two, I want you to get some answers in writing from HR or whoever is responsible for this in your organization.

[00:05:08] What would be, or is, your last day? What would be your final paycheck, your PTO payout date, and your healthcare cutoff and COBRA window? I want you to do this in email, not phone. You can call, but have them send an email directly to you. You need this stuff in writing. You don't want to mess around with that.

[00:05:29] Three, file for unemployment tonight, not Monday. Go ahead and do that part now. Plus, it's actually going to be useful. Yes, it's possible you may not be eligible for unemployment. However, unless you have specific advising by an unemployment attorney or somebody who is working with that all the time, then I would suggest go ahead and apply, and it's okay if you find out, no, you're not eligible later.

[00:05:54] I also want you to tell just one person. I don't want you to, like, make the announcements on LinkedIn or anything else like that. Just tell one person, a, you know, spouse or significant other, a close friend, a former manager you trust. Let's go human first. What you do not do in the first 48 hours, we're not updating our resume.

[00:06:12] Again, we're not posting open to work. We're not starting applying. Every one of those moves we're not worrying about. Let's stabilize first here. If you just got laid off, you want help thinking through your specific situation, I would say drop me an email directly, scott@happentoyourcareer.com. Put 'Conversation' in the subject line, and we'll connect you with the right person on our team, and we'll figure out the very best way that we can support you.

[00:06:35] Because the moment you take the first action, you stop letting your career happen to you, and you start happening to it. I'm Scott Anthony Barlow. This is Happen To Your Career. Let's go make it happen.