5 Steps to Financially Prepare to Be Laid Off

It’s very possible, and some would argue very likely, that you could experience being laid off from your job at least once in your career. There really is no such thing as job security these days. Experiencing a layoff unexpectedly can trigger a range of emotions. The company you have devoted thousands of hours of your life to, away from your family and friends, abruptly informs that you and your services are no longer needed. Betrayal, frustration, anger, sadness, anxiety, and embarrassment are just a few of those emotions. It doesn’t have to be that way though! If you are financially and emotionally prepared for a layoff, it can be an empowering experience.

1.    Your Employer is Just Not That Into You

Unless you’re in a union, have a written employment contract or live in Montana, employees of private companies are likely subject to at-will employment. Three-quarters of American workers are subject to at-will employment. Let’s understand what that means:
At-will means that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one, or for no reason without incurring legal liability.
Again, there is no such thing as job security! With a few protected exceptions, (e.g. based on race, sex, gender, national origin, age, disability), a company can terminate your employment at any time for any reason, or for no reason at all. Many of us don’t realize this simple fact and base our livelihoods around our employer. Where we live, what time we wake up, what time we sleep, when and where we vacation. Most of our lives are centered around our employer and that connection can be ripped away for any reason or no reason at all.
This is not to bash corporations, but rather simply to put into context that many of us are centering our lives around a relationship that has little to no contractual stability. In other words, you are not married to your employer, you’re just dating.
Corporations, especially publicly traded companies, have one primary goal – Increase shareholder profit. Regardless of what it says on your employers’ ‘About Us’ page, everything your company does centers upon that one primary goal. Corporations are like animals in the wild. That animal may look cute and cuddly, but the second it even perceives a threat to its survival, it is deadly. If company leadership decides that it needs to remove 10% of its workforce to be more competitive, it is their fiduciary duty to do so. It’s not even about you. They are just not that into you.

2. You are the CEO of [YOU], Inc.

Once you understand that you are not wed to your employer, the next step is to understand that you yourself are a corporation. The employment contract has changed dramatically from the days of our parents and grandparents, pensions have all but vanished, unions have diminished. You are solely responsible for your financial well-being, that includes preparing for layoffs and managing your own retirement. Once you begin to see yourself as a business, ask yourself a simple question: Can you think of any successful businesses that only have one client/product? Probably not, because if that one client leaves or the product stops selling, they would be out of business. Well, if you are an employee and your employer is your sole source of income, that’s exactly what you are doing.

3. Build an Emergency Fund

Once you get your head around the fact that you are not wed to your employer and you are actually a business, a world of opportunities can open up to you. By no means are we advocating quitting your job, but once you see your employer as one client and one revenue stream, you can start to focus on other things.
You have to build an emergency fund. No excuses, it’s vital. Three to six months of your essential monthly expenses (in cash in a separate bank account) is a great goal and gives you the peace of mind that you can pay your bills if your employer breaks up with you suddenly.

4. Evaluate Your Skills In the Marketplace

If your employer is your primary client, can you use that same skill set for other clients? If you do social media marketing for your employer, can you do social media marketing for other companies in other industries? You may also have skills that are completely outside of what you do from 9-5 that you can think about monetizing. One way to evaluate this is to ask yourself three questions:

1. What do people come to me for advice for personally and professionally?
2. What problems do I want to solve?
3. What value do I bring to the marketplace that people are willing to pay for?

Since you are a business, you must think about solving problems for others and providing value to the most amount of people. Once you start thinking this way, the gears will start to turn and you can develop side hustles and other sources of income outside of your employer.

5. Let Your Employer Help You

Finally, utilize your employers’ resources. You may just be dating your employer, but there are advantages to dating wealthy. Here are a few suggestions on how to make sure you’re getting the most from your relationship with your employer.

1. Maximize Your Employment Benefits – don’t leave money on the table because you haven’t looked at the HR Portal in a while
2. Take Employee Development seriously – You must continuously learn and grow to make yourself (and your business) more marketable. If your employer (primary client) is willing to pay for you to develop new skills, that can be valuable in your current role, future roles and for other clients.
3. Build Your Clientele – Now that you know that you’re just dating, give yourself permission to see other people. Network within your company, your company’s business partners, and competitors. There are people within all three of those groups that can be future employers and/or future clients.
4. Check Your Value in the Marketplace – Employers have a financial incentive to pay you less than market value, especially over time. Remember, their #1 goal is to increase shareholder value and your salary may be in direct conflict with that goal. You are solely responsible for ensuring you are getting paid market value, no one else. Every 3-5 years, you should be testing that value in the marketplace by applying for jobs. Not only is applying for jobs good for networking and building clientele, but it also helps keep you from being severely underpaid, costing you tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.

Thirty-year employees are increasingly rare each day. You most likely will not work for the same employer for your entire career. Understanding the true nature of your relationship with your employer and your responsibility to your own financial well-being is vital. If you understand your value in the economic marketplace and maximize that value not just for your current employer, but also for [YOU], Inc., getting laid off can be an opportunity, not a catastrophe.