You Just Got Laid Off: What to Do in the First Week

After 15 years with the same company - seven of them as an employee - I got laid off in an email.

It came on a holiday weekend. Three paragraphs. My position was being eliminated. They were going with an outside technology provider. Effective in seven days.

No meeting. No phone call. No formal agreement. Just... done.

That was my reality now. Fifteen years of history, seven years of employment, erased in an email I read on my phone while my family was in the other room.

If you're reading this because something similar just happened to you, I want you to know two things:

First, the fear you're feeling is real. Work isn't just a paycheck. It's how you support your family. It's part of your identity. It's how you answer "what do you do?" at every social gathering. Having that suddenly taken away threatens all of it at once.

Second, you're going to get through this. But right now, your job isn't to find a new job. Your job is to stabilize, understand what you're working with, and not make any moves you can't take back.

Don't Respond Immediately

Your first instinct might be to reply right away. To ask questions. To express how you feel. To try to change something.

Don't.

You're in shock. Even if you don't feel like it, your judgment is compromised. Sleep on it. Give yourself at least 24 hours before you respond to anything.

This isn't about being strategic (though it is). It's about protecting yourself from saying something you'll regret when you're not thinking clearly.

Don't Sign Anything Yet

If you've been offered severance, there's probably paperwork. Maybe they want you to sign something quickly. Maybe there's a deadline mentioned.

Here's what most people don't realize: those deadlines are rarely as urgent as they seem. In many cases, you have legal protections that give you time to review (for employees over 40, federal law often requires 21 days to consider a severance agreement).

Take the time. Read everything. Understand what you're agreeing to.

Understand What You're Being Offered

Most severance agreements include:

Don't accept or reject anything until you understand the full picture.

The Severance Payment Structure Matters Enormously

This is the most important tactical advice I can give you, and it's something most people don't think about:

Here's why:

Unemployment benefits have a fixed window. In Washington State, where I live, it's about six months. You can only collect for a certain number of weeks, and the clock starts when you file.

Here's the trap: any week you receive income, you don't get unemployment that week. But your total window doesn't extend - it's still the same six months.

So if your severance is spread out over, say, 12 weekly payments, that's 12 weeks where you're getting severance instead of unemployment. But you're still up against the same six-month limit. When your severance runs out, you might only have a few weeks of unemployment benefits left.

If you'd received that same severance as a lump sum, you could have collected unemployment for the full duration while your severance sits in your bank account as a cushion.

There's another reason to prefer a lump sum: it's much easier for a company to withhold future payments than to claw back money they've already paid you. Once that lump sum is in your account, it's yours.

Consider an Employment Attorney (With Realistic Expectations)

After I got that email, I didn't know what to do. I'd never been laid off before. There was no formal agreement - just an email with terms. I didn't know how to respond without accidentally changing something or giving up leverage I didn't know I had.

So I hired an employment attorney.

I'll be honest: I spent almost a thousand dollars and most of the advice was mediocre. But two pieces were worth every penny:

Why? Because the moment you propose different terms, you've opened a negotiation. And in a negotiation, they can change their terms too. The offer that seemed firm suddenly becomes flexible - in both directions.

Instead, I asked clarifying questions: "What specifically does this term mean?" "What's the deadline for this requirement?" "Can you confirm the timeline in writing?"

Clarifying questions lock down specifics. They don't invite counter-offers.

If you can afford it, an hour with an employment attorney can be worth it just for peace of mind. But go in with realistic expectations. They're not going to "fight" for you in most cases. They're there to help you understand what you're agreeing to.

Document Everything

Save every email. Screenshot any relevant messages. Note the dates and times of any conversations.

This isn't about preparing for a lawsuit (though it could be useful if it comes to that). It's about having a clear record when your memory of this stressful time gets fuzzy.

You might need to reference something weeks or months from now. Have it documented.

What NOT to Do This Week

Take Care of Yourself

This sounds like a platitude, but it's not.

A layoff is a loss. It's grief. Your routine is gone. Your identity is shaken. Your sense of security is compromised.

You don't have to "stay positive." You're allowed to be angry, scared, sad, or all of them at once. What happened to you is genuinely hard.

But also: eat something. Go outside. Talk to someone you trust. Don't disappear into a hole of doom-scrolling job boards at 2 AM.

The practical stuff matters. So does your mental state. You can't do the practical stuff well if you're falling apart.

What Comes Next

Once you've stabilized - once you understand your severance, your timeline, your benefits situation - then it's time to think about what's next.

If you haven't looked for a job in years, the landscape has changed. ATS systems, AI screening, the ghosting culture. It's different now, and you'll need a strategy.

Tools like FitCheck can help you quickly assess which opportunities are actually worth your time before you invest hours in applications. But that's Part 2 of this series. Right now, your focus is simpler: