S/O Laid Off Thread: Need Tips For A Possible Lay-off

[mylilnikita]

There have been rumblings of a layoff for a little while now. And very recently, someone has told me to get ready and this person is someone who is over me and I have no reason to doubt.

So, I am starting to plan. It would be more if a furlough instead of them saying to everyone see ya would t want to be ya.

And my only experience was with when the pandemic hit and I was on furlough for 3 months but then got the extra money for unemployment, so this will be different.
I’ve started getting ready of streaming services I don’t use and actually in Black Friday week lowered my favorites.

Unfortunately, when this layoff will be started so will my benefits like new health insurance etc . And I have no interest in COBRA paying more since the employer will not be contributing so I have to figure that one out because I have to take medication.

Any other tips? It would be appreciated.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Tune up your resume and start getting it out there. Sometimes it is best to be first off a sinking ship, and I have never looked back once I have found a new job.

Enjoy the time off as best you can!

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Tune up your resume and start getting it out there. Sometimes it is best to be first off a sinking ship, and I have never looked back once I have found a new job.

Enjoy the time off as best you can!

I would also get online with sites like indeed and especially LinkedIn. My wife has found her last two positions through being headhunted on LinkedIn. Best of luck to you.

 

[tvguy]

I would explore the Health Insurance situation thoroughly. I wouldn't dismiss COBRA because if you don't qualify for subsidies, Market Place insurance likely will be MUCH more expensive.

 

[fla4fun]

I would explore the Health Insurance situation thoroughly. I wouldn't dismiss COBRA because if you don't qualify for subsidies, Market Place insurance likely will be MUCH more expensive.

I agree. I didn’t qualify for any subsidies as a single, unemployed person, so COBRA was about $350 cheaper per month than buying private or going through the marketplace.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I'll say what I told my kids recently. If you have a home open up a line of credit and do not touch it, just leave it there with just enough to keep it going. When the housing crisis hit people who just needed a little wiggle room in between jobs were refused credit and lost homes so after that I always made sure we had as much buffer as we could manage. I advise my kids to do the same as they get older.

If you can consolidate credit card bills try to do that and get the longest term possible fixed to get payments as low as possible.

It's all about the long game, get payments as low as possible and pay off with extra principal when times are good.

Call the pharma that makes the medicine and see if they have any programs, some do.

I guess I'd line up all support services and get all my medical checkups like eye and dental, maybe use your RX mail order for 90 day supply on everything.

 

[CynBeth]

I would just get a resume together and not prepare to jump ship see what happens it could be nothing. If you find out it is going down you can always sign up for Linked In and Indeed and start looking. The most time consuming thing is the resume. I was recently blindsided wherevmost of us are being laid off in a few months the offshore people will handle everything. I thought I would be at my job until I retire so did not have a resume could not find my old one from years ago so had to make a new one which a friend helped me with. I signed up on Linked In and constantly get e-mails about things that match what I put for the types of jobs I am looking for. Right now I would see what your state offers for the affordable care act health plans. About 10 years ago my husband had some health issues where he was in and out of the hospital so ended up using all of his sick and vacation time at work and was let go. We looked at what my company offered and we found a BC/BS plan on our state’s site that was slightly more expensive but you got more and he either does not pay for his meds at all or very little, They offer a variety of plans from different insurance companies and the cost goes by your budget. Especially now that I am being laid off am so glad I did not have health through work. Good luck!

 

[slo]

My DH has lost his job more than once, so I live every day like he’s going to get laid off tomorrow, which is good, because he just lost his job last Thursday (11/30), but this thread isn’t about me, I just mentioned this because I can relate. So please, to others, just let this info go.

OP…it’s a scary time and hugs to you

First…..look at your credit card bills. If you have credit card balances, and have available credit, call the credit card company and see if they have any offers for balance transferring - this way you eliminate all the extra bills and hopefully they’ll have a good incentive to do those balance transfers. If you get any offers in the mail, keep them. January is a big month for these, because of the amounts people spend in December.

Second - Do you have medical bills? If yes, call everywhere and tell them the situation and ask to go on a payment plan. Do not ignore medical bills - they will send you to collections and you don’t want that.

Third - Utilities - call them - sometimes they will help. Utilities were always the bills I’d pay late because they don’t report late payments.

Forth - Eliminate the extras - it stinks, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Fifth - When it comes to medical insurance - once you get your COBRA amount, go talk to an insurance broker to see if they can find something for less money. My DH will be doing this next week.

Sixth - get your resume made and once you are laid off, your new job is finding a job, which means you still wake up early and get ready for work - your work is just different now.

As of now….you‘re not unemployed, so take deep breaths and I think you’re already headed in the right direction by asking for advice and wanting to be ready. Good luck to you - I wish you nothing but the best. God Bless

 

[NYCgrrl]

If you haven’t already started saving funds, do so. In the best of all worlds it could become a lifelong habit.

Update your resume. Often doesn’t take longer than a day or two and isn’t it nice to see all your life accomplishments in one place? Sometimes doing a resume opens your eyes to another professional goal or path.

When needed I played a game with self to see how much money I didn’t spend in a month. Over time the stakes were raised to weekly and then daily. It became second nature and still stays with me.

Look at your biggest discretionary expense and try to cut it in half.

Life may well have presented you with a challenge; beat it and be a better person for the experience.

 

[kdonnel]

Unfortunately, when this layoff will be started so will my benefits like new health insurance etc . And I have no interest in COBRA paying more since the employer will not be contributing so I have to figure that one out because I have to take medication.

If COBRA still works like it did a few years ago, one great feature is you don't have to agree to pay until you need it. At that point you have to pay everything as though you started from day 1 but that can still be a significant savings compared to a hospitalization.

So say it takes two months to find a job and you never need it, no premiums need to be paid.

On the other hand say two months in to your layoff and you need to be admitted to the hospital. You have the option to pay both months premiums and activate your coverage.

 

[jo-jo]

If COBRA still works like it did a few years ago, one great feature is you don't have to agree to pay until you need it. At that point you have to pay everything as though you started from day 1 but that can still be a significant savings compared to a hospitalization.

So say it takes two months to find a job and you never need it, no premiums need to be paid.

On the other hand say two months in to your layoff and you need to be admitted to the hospital. You have the option to pay both months premiums and activate your coverage.

I had no idea it worked that way. That would be great.

Way way back (20 ish years ago) when our DS finished school and no job yet. We were paying something like $700 a month just for him. He was about 21 at the tiime. Thankfully, that was only a few months long.

 

[tony67]

So much depends on the state, but COBRA was ridiculously expensive for me and most of the people I know.
The health exchange is about 1200 a month cheaper a month.

Update your resume - you may want to start looking now.
Try to avoid the topic that you are going to be laid off.

Being laid off is common but its easier to find a job when you have one.

Depending on your age and the field you may want to adjust the resume so you seem younger - yeah in theory they cant discriminate, but if its obvious you are mid 50s they may just pass you by. There were sever jobs I applied for that I was no doubt a perfect fit. I had done exactly what they are trying to do and its not something particularly common. They passed over the resume without even a call.
I made adjusts to seem to be mid 40s and I've gotten more initial calls.

Also look into how resumes are written today, its not the same as 20 years ago.

Last, depending on the field, consider a recruiter.
Tell them exactly what you are looking for and if they ignore it find another recruiter.

Also just know that you will be ghosted even after the 5th round of interviews.
Many times there isn't even a position open or funding gets cut etc..

Good luck.

 

[mikehn]

Not to be mean or anything but maybe consider hiring a pro resume writer. Based on your post, your grammar needs some work.

 

[dvcgirl67]

If you haven’t already started saving funds, do so. In the best of all worlds it could become a lifelong habit.

Look at your biggest discretionary expense and try to cut it in half.

Life may well have presented you with a challenge; beat it and be a better person for the experience.

These comments are what I was thinking......and while it may not be 100% helpful now, there's nothing like a crisis to bring on a wake-up call. I'm seeing a few posters talking about consolidating credit card debt or opening HELOCs for a line of credit. That would mean going into a crisis carrying a lot of dead weight on your back.
Still, it's good advice if the OP has revolving consumer debt.

These kinds of moments are wake-ups to get that emergency fund built up so that it's not super scary if/when a layoff happens. This is the fourth or fifth thread/mention of people on this board getting laid off, so that has caught my attention too. The COBRA advice is good....especially the tip from kdonnel....take the COBRA and if you need to activate it in the first two months....it's there. The very last thing you need to is to go without health insurance and have a medical emergency.