These are troubling times and our economy is not healthy. Companies are hunkering down and making deep cuts in their budgets. Unfortunately departments that do not make a difference in the bottom line - and even some that do - are fair game for staff reductions.

So, are you spending time being worried about being laid off?

The better prepared you are for the reality of being laid off, the less emotional you will be should your company tell you that your job has been eliminated.

Instead of worrying about the possibility of job cuts at the workplace, you need to formulate an action plan. Here are some ideas for your Confidential Layoff Preparation To Do list:

• Make sure that your resume is current and reflects your latest work including key dates Polish your resume
• If you don't already have it, collect your supervisor's contact information. While you are at it, quietly gather contact information for other managers who have told you that they appreciate the work you do.
• Begin building a list of business contact references. These are various people who know your work and can speak to your experience and abilities. Create a list of references
• Take home all the business cards you have collected at work
• Clean up and remove any personal information and files you have on your work PC or laptop (This is a good idea regardless of the situation at work)
• Delete all unneeded and not work-related correspondence on your work e-mail including those messages that you have on your "sent" file.
• At the end of your normal day, collect and begin quietly removing small quantities of personal items, photos and files from work and take them home. (If anyone asks what you are doing, tell them it was time to exchange old stuff for some new items or that you felt like doing some Spring Cleaning.)
• On the Rollodex file, gather the names and contact info of people you normally work with (including happy customers as well as business partners)
• Like business cards, forward home all the contact e-mail addresses you have
• Begin building your reference database at home. This could be a paper file, a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet. Try to maintain one consolidated file.

Things to Avoid Pre-layoff

• Do not walk around with a glum expression on your face. Avoid if at all possible any office talk about how bad things are and how soon the axe will fall. Don't give in to the gloom and doom mentality as it does you no good and keeps you from being productive. Instead, try your best to be productive while at work and, to the extent possible, continue to do your job. This is good for your morale and sense of self worth.
  
  
• Do not succumb to the temptation of removing company property. For example, do not remove company customer lists or copy financial information from a corporate database. This not only unethical, it is illegal and could cut off any severance pay if you are caught. Review ethics

What to do if you are Actually Laid Off

Begin The Quest For Your New Career

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