Rehearsing the worst case layoff scenario can help prepare you for the real thing.
Waiting to learn if you will escape a looming layoff can sometimes be more stressful than losing your job. On the other hand, a study found the likelihood of developing a health condition increases by 83% in the first 15 to 18 months after a layoff, even for employees with no pre-existing health conditions.
This unsettling feeling is now known as Layoff Anxiety, a term that describes the emotions and health issues proceeding job cuts.
So what can we do beyond worrying while waiting for a layoff?
1. Deploy Defensive Pessimism
One way of making worry work to your advantage is by "taking your fear out to its extreme," wrote executive coach Melody Wilding in a piece for Harvard Business Review. Deploying "defensive pessimism" is, according to Wilding, walking through your plan if you are laid off in detail to "anticipate how you will deal with obstacles such as your finances, health care, and finding a new job." This strategy allows you to rehearse the worst-case scenario productively.
In the spirit of defensive pessimism, here are some options to consider instead of holding your breath in anticipation.
2. Create An Emergency Fund
Experts recommend keeping enough money to cover three to six months of living expenses to replace lost income. Bestselling Author Bonnie Honeycutt listed the top three places to keep emergency funds, rather than in your checking account, as High-Yield Savings, Money Market Accounts, and Certificate of Deposits (CDs). Finding the extra money in advance to fund an emergency can prove challenging. Adding income sources is possible if your pennies are stretched beyond the pale.
3. Nurture Your Side Hustle
Not putting all our eggs into one basket or diversifying our portfolio are age-old concepts. However, when it comes to full-time jobs, many employees push all their chips to the middle, betting on one source of income rather than exploring other options. I've been laid off twice in three years and can attest to the importance of having a little side income source. It kept the bills at bay.
Personal branding expert Stephen A. Hart believes that creating other offerings outside of your 9-5 helps maximize the skills we've acquired throughout a career. "We often discount the superpowers we've developed, but there is a lot that you can do and possibly teach," Hart said in an email. "Begin by inventorying your acquired skills, talents, and wisdom. And look at ways you could create an offering to assist other people or organizations within your industry for a fee." There are many quick ways to cash in on your knowledge, like coaching, consulting, and facilitating workshops.
4. Know Your Rights
Many factors play into layoffs, and the language used by employers significantly impacts workers. In her article for The Wall Street Journal, Vanessa Furham notes there are "some important differences between being furloughed, laid off or permanently terminated, and it could mean the difference between having healthcare coverage or not." Another area to consider is that severance is only sometimes an option, and often companies forgo paying out unused vacation. All the more reason to use it before you lose it, in this case, forever. Knowing your rights and options before getting laid off can slice down the element of surprise when the news arrives.
Take heart: Walking the path of the worst-case scenario before it happens often opens our eyes to the reality that a layoff doesn't have to be permanent. Although our time at one company may end, the journey of the rest of our lives begins when they let us go.
