How do I handle being laid off?

First, separate the practical from the emotional and do the practical things in the first week while you have documents and access. The emotional part takes longer and doesn't need to be resolved before you act. **Week one, practical:** 1. **Read your severance and exit paperwork carefully before signing anything.** Don't sign on the day. Check notice period, severance calculation, unused leave payout, when health cover ends, equity vesting and any non-compete. If the amounts are significant or the terms are unusual, an employment lawyer's hour is cheap insurance. 2. **Ask whether the terms are negotiable.** Sometimes they are — extended cover, a later end date, a positive reference commitment, or accelerated vesting. Ask politely; the worst answer is no. 3. **Download what's yours** before access is cut: your own work samples where permitted, your contacts, performance reviews, payslips. Don't take anything confidential or proprietary. 4. **Get references in writing now**, while your manager and colleagues remember specifics and feel goodwill. This window closes fast as people scatter. 5. **File for unemployment benefits** if available where you are. Do it immediately; processing takes time and there's no advantage in waiting. 6. **Do a lean budget.** Know exactly how many months you have. This one number reduces anxiety more than anything else, because vague financial fear is worse than a known runway. **Week two onward:** - Tell your network before you start applying. Most people find roles through people, and a straightforward 'I was affected by layoffs at X, I'm looking for Y, here's what I do' message works well. Redundancy carries little stigma now — mass layoffs have been common and everyone knows it's a business decision. - Update your resume and profile while achievements are fresh. - Set a structured routine with defined hours. Unstructured days are corrosive. **On the emotional part**, which is the harder half: - The reaction is disproportionate to a 'business decision' because work carries identity, routine and social connection, and all three vanished at once. Feeling floored is a normal response to losing three things simultaneously, not an overreaction. - Layoffs are overwhelmingly about headcount, budget and org charts rather than individual performance. Whole teams and high performers go. Reading it as a verdict on your ability is the most common and most damaging misinterpretation. - Take a short break if you can afford one — a week or two — before going full speed into a search. Job searching from a state of panic produces worse applications and worse interviews. - Talk to people. Isolation is what turns this into something worse, and a startling number of people you know have been through it.