The layoff playbook.

The first 60 seconds.

Your manager has rehearsed this. They are reading from an HR-approved script written by lawyers. You are not. That is okay. The asymmetry is not yours to fix.

When the words land, when you hear “we are eliminating your role” or “today is your last day” or “your position is being impacted,” do three things in this exact order:

1. Take a breath. One full inhale and exhale. The pause does not look weak. It looks composed.
2. Say “I understand this is a business decision.” Acknowledgment, not agreement. It buys you the floor for asking questions.
3. Open a notes app or notebook. Start writing. Time, names of everyone in the room, the exact words being used. The act of taking notes shifts the room from emotional to procedural.

Three actions. That is the entire performance you owe in the first minute. Everything that follows is what to do once your pen is out.

What to say. Three sentences, max.

You do not need to defend yourself. You do not need to justify your performance. You do not need to volunteer feelings. The decision was made above this room, probably weeks ago. Three statements cover everything you should say:

• “I understand.” Two words. Acknowledgment of the decision. Not agreement to terms. Says you are present and capable of moving the meeting forward.
• “I want to make sure I have everything documented.” A direct request for written materials. The HR person cannot say no to this. It also tells the note-taker in the room that you are tracking what is said.
• “I will need time to review the agreement before signing.” Non-negotiable. If they push, you push back gently, citing the federal review window if you qualify. We will get to that script below.

That is it. Three sentences. Then you ask the nine questions. Save the rest of your words for after.

What NOT to say. Five lines that cost real money.

Every word you say in this meeting goes in a file. Every file becomes evidence in a future negotiation. These five lines will hurt you:

• “It’s fine, I get it.” Reads as agreement to terms you have not read. The HR notes-taker will use this to argue you accepted the package willingly when you try to negotiate.
• “Where do I sign?” Forfeits your review window before it begins. If you are 40 or older, you may be giving up federal protections that exist by law for a reason.
• “I’ll just quit instead.”Quitting can disqualify you from unemployment in most states. Severance offers usually require you to confirm “this is an involuntary termination.” Keep the framing intact. It is worth thousands.
• “You’re firing the wrong person.” Even when true, this reframes the conversation as performance, which kills your reference and gives the company written evidence you were combative on your way out.
• “I’m going to talk to a lawyer about this.” The second you mention litigation, the conversation goes through legal and the room goes cold. If you actually need a lawyer, get one quietly and let the lawyer reach out. Never threaten in the room.

Anger is a valid response. Save it for after. Vent to a friend, your partner, your therapist, your dog. Not in the room. Not in the email thread. Not in the all-team Slack channel as you log out for the last time.

The 9 questions you must ask before you leave the room.

Bring a list. Read from it. The answers shape the next 60 days of your financial life.

1. What is my last day?

Your separation date controls your last paycheck, benefits cliff, COBRA start, and unemployment filing date. Ask for it in writing. If they say “today is your last day,” clarify whether that means end-of-business, midnight, or the literal moment of the meeting. The timestamp matters for any equity that might vest before close of business.

2. When will I receive the severance agreement and what is the review period?

Federal law is precise here. If you are 40 or older and laid off individually, the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (29 U.S.C. § 626(f)) mandates a 21-day review window. For group layoffs (two or more employees laid off as part of the same action) the window extends to 45 days. After signing, a 7-day revocation period follows. These are calendar days, not business days. Anyone telling you otherwise is wrong. Get the dates in writing. If you are under 40, no federal minimum applies, but most employers grant 7 to 14 days. Ask for 21. They almost always say yes.

3. What does the severance package include in total?

Get the line items, not the headline number. Cash severance (specify weeks of pay). COBRA (employer contribution amount, duration in months). Pro-rated bonus if you were mid-cycle. Accelerated equity vesting if relevant. Outplacement services. Reference letter. Each is a separate budget line on the company’s side. You can negotiate each independently. Read the severance evaluation guide after the meeting to benchmark what you were offered against market rate.

4. What happens to my unvested equity?

If you have RSUs, options, or any form of equity, ask three specific things:

• What vests on my last day?
• Is there acceleration for involuntary termination?
• For options, what is my post-termination exercise window? Standard is 90 days. Negotiate to 12 months for private-company equity. Ten years is rare but not impossible at companies with progressive equity policies.

Companies have boilerplate equity language. They will accelerate cliff-vesting events for senior employees as a goodwill gesture if you ask. Ask.

5. What is my reference policy?

Most companies’ default reference policy is “name, dates of employment, and final title only.” That is functionally useless to you in a job search. Ask for three specific things:

• A written reference letter, signed by your manager, addressed “To Whom It May Concern.”
• Permission for your manager to take reference calls personally, not routed through HR.
• A LinkedIn recommendation from your manager, posted publicly.

Cost to the company is zero. Value to you is months of accelerated job search. Get all three in writing.

6. What is the timeline for COBRA enrollment and what will my premiums be?

COBRA premiums shock most people. Without your employer’s subsidy, you typically pay $700 to $2,200 per month per family member depending on the plan. You have 60 days from your last day of coverage to elect COBRA. Coverage is retroactive once you enroll. Ask now whether the company is offering any COBRA subsidy as part of the severance. Ask whether your dental and vision will continue. Compare COBRA against an ACA marketplace plan immediately. A loss-of-coverage event opens a 60-day special enrollment window in the marketplace, and marketplace plans are often half the cost of unsubsidized COBRA.

7. Will my manager be available for a transition conversation in the next two weeks?

Two reasons to ask. One: a clean handoff signals to coworkers that you left in good standing, which preserves your network. Two: it gives you informal time to ask off-the-record questions about reference framing, internal politics around the layoff, and any job leads your manager has heard about. Most managers are uncomfortable saying no to a 30-minute coffee in the week after they delivered the news. Use that.

8. What ongoing obligations am I bound by?

Read your original employment agreement before the meeting if you can. Ask about each:

• Non-compete. Many states (California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma) ban them outright. The FTC’s 2024 nationwide ban is in legal limbo, so state law still controls. The severance moment is when you negotiate any non-compete away.
• Non-solicit. Often stricter than non-competes and easier for the company to enforce. Get the scope in writing and negotiate it down.
• Non-disparagement. Standard in severance releases. Ask for it to be mutual, meaning the company also agrees not to disparage you. This is small but matters for references.
• Confidentiality and IP assignment. Confirm what you can and cannot keep, especially work product, contacts, and any side-project IP that may have been touched by your employment agreement.

9. Who is the contact for follow-up questions?

Get a name and a direct email. Not a generic “hr@” alias. Ask specifically for:

• The HR business partner handling your separation paperwork.
• The benefits administrator for COBRA, 401(k), and FSA balances.
• The payroll contact for your final paycheck and any commission or bonus calculations.
• The legal contact, if any, for severance agreement questions.

Once you walk out of the building or close the video call, those names are your only line back into the company. Without them you will spend two weeks bouncing through ticket queues for a single answer.

What you sign zero of in the room.

Five documents typically appear in a layoff packet. You sign zero on the spot. Not one. Not even the “simple” ones. Read them at home, with your full review window in front of you.

1. The severance agreement (release of claims). The big one. You forfeit legal claims against the employer in exchange for the severance payment. This is the document that the 21-day federal review window exists for if you are 40+. Read every line. Negotiate. Then sign.
2. An updated NDA or extended confidentiality agreement. Standard NDAs covering trade secrets are reasonable. Broad gag orders covering your work history, the layoff itself, or your treatment by the company are negotiable and often illegal under recent SEC and EEOC guidance for non-disclosure of unlawful conduct.
3. A new or updated non-compete. Some companies use the severance moment to slip a stricter non-compete into the documents. Refuse to expand any existing restriction without separate consideration. Refuse to add one if you did not have one before.
4. A reference acknowledgment. Anything that limits what you can say to future employers about your work, your departure, or the company. This kind of clause is increasingly being challenged under state and federal law as an unlawful restraint on free speech in employment.
5. An equity termination acknowledgment. Some agreements include a waiver of your rights to challenge the equity treatment. Read every line. If your equity vesting was close to a cliff, this is the document where you accidentally sign away thousands of dollars.

If anyone tells you “you have to sign today to get the severance,” they are wrong. Federal law for age 40+ employees and customary practice for everyone else give you days, not minutes. Pressure to sign immediately is itself a red flag for a future legal challenge.

Use the negotiation window. Always.

After the meeting you have your full review window before signing. Use every day. Read the severance negotiation tactics guide for the exact email template, the leverage analysis, and the ask matrix. The summary version:

• Ask in writing. One email. Specific items, not vague “more.”
• Prioritize non-cash items first. Extended COBRA, accelerated vesting, written reference letter, release from non-compete. These come from different internal budgets and face less resistance than a cash bump.
• Propose a specific deadline. “I would like to resolve this within the [21 or 45]-day review window.”
• Stay unemotional. Severance is a transaction. Treat it that way and the response rate goes up.

The single most underused negotiation lever is time. Your employer’s HR team is moving on to the next case file. Your case is the only case in your inbox. Slow, deliberate, written follow-up wins.

Professional posture. Your reputation outlasts this job.

You will work for thirty more years. The people in this room will work for thirty more years too. Some will become hiring managers. Some will start companies you want to join. Some will be references for your references.

Your behavior in the next 14 days writes a chapter that follows you forever. Three rules:

• Never trash the company in writing. Slack DMs, group chats, screenshots, Twitter, LinkedIn posts, leaked emails. None of it. Even private channels surface in unexpected ways. Especially in tech, where the same group of people circulate through ten companies in a decade.
• Never trash the manager who delivered the news. They were almost certainly told 24 to 48 hours before you were. They are not the architect of the decision. They are the one in the room with you. Treat them like the messenger they are.
• Send a clean exit email to your team. Short. Gracious. Forward-looking. “Thanks for the years. Stay in touch. Here is my personal email and LinkedIn.” That is the entire email. Send it from a personal account if your work email is already shut off.

This is not about being a doormat. This is about preserving optionality. The world is small. The hiring market is smaller. The version of you that is calm in the next 14 days is the version that gets the next job through a former coworker’s introduction six months from now.

The 30-minute post-meeting checklist.

Within 30 minutes of the layoff conversation, before the shock numbs you and before your access is cut, do these seven things:

1. Write down everything that was said. Verbatim if you can. Names, dates, exact phrasing, follow-up commitments. Date and time-stamp the document. Email it to a personal address.
2. Forward yourself anything you legally own. Your contacts, work product where allowed by your employment agreement, performance reviews, and any documentation you may need for unemployment or wrongful termination consultation. Do this before access is cut.
3. Save your last three performance reviews. Critical for unemployment appeals if the company contests, and useful evidence if you later consult a lawyer about wrongful termination.
4. Take a screenshot of your final pay stub date and PTO balance. Some states require PTO payout, some do not. Have the numbers in hand for any disputes.
5. Note your benefits effective end date. Health, dental, vision, FSA, dependent care. Each may end on a different date.
6. Email yourself a clean export of your LinkedIn connections at the company. Your network is your asset. Preserve it before any account-level changes happen.
7. File any pending expense reports today. Reimbursements get harder once you are off payroll. Submit while you still have system access.

This is not paranoia. This is the standard checklist any employment lawyer recommends. Do it before you call your spouse, before you cry, before you eat. Thirty minutes. Then you can collapse.

Manager scripts and how to respond.

HR scripts repeat across companies. You will hear specific phrases. Each has a calm response.

None of these responses are confrontational. They are calm, specific, and procedural. That is the entire posture you want for the next two weeks.

What to do in the next 48 hours.

After the conversation and the 30-minute checklist, the next 48 hours has its own playbook. Six things, in this order:

1. File for unemployment. In most states you can file the day of separation. Do not wait. Some states have a one-week waiting period that does not start until you file. Use the Orbyt Unemployment Calculator to estimate your weekly benefit by state. Washington pays the highest at $1,079 per week. Mississippi the lowest at $235.
2. Sign nothing. Read the severance agreement at home, in good light, with the federal review window in mind. If anything is unclear, that is the day to email the contact you got in question 9.
3. Decide on COBRA versus marketplace. Get the COBRA enrollment paperwork in motion before you decide. You have 60 days. Marketplace coverage is often half the price and your loss-of-coverage event opens a special enrollment window the same day.
4. Update your LinkedIn. Move your title to “Open to opportunities” within 7 days. The algorithm rewards recent activity. Keep your former employer’s name in your headline for the next 90 days for searchability. Use the Orbyt Resume Score to make sure your resume passes the four major ATS systems before you start applying.
5. Reach out to your network. Three messages today: a former manager, a former colleague at another company, and one person at a company you would like to join. Subject line: “Heads up.” Body: 4 sentences. “I was part of the layoffs at [company]. I am looking for [type of role]. If you hear of anything, I would appreciate the introduction. Happy to share more if useful.” That is the entire email.
6. Save everything. The layoff letter, the severance agreement (PDF it), your last pay stub, your benefits enrollment confirmations, every email exchange with HR. You will need at least one of these for unemployment, COBRA, taxes, or possibly future legal review.

Frequently Asked Questions

The bottom line

The layoff conversation is 15 minutes. Your career is decades. Move slow. Document everything. Sign nothing in the room. Ask the nine questions. Send the email. Use the federal review windows. Treat your reputation like the asset it is, because it outlasts every job and every employer.

Related guides

• Severance & Layoff Hub →
• Severance Package Evaluation →
• Severance Negotiation Tactics →
• WARN Act Timeline →
• Severance vs Unemployment →
• Unemployment Calculator (every state) →
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