Laid off? What to do in the first 72 hours

The first hours after a layoff feel urgent, but almost nothing actually is. Your employer will hand you a separation agreement and imply a deadline. In most US cases you have twenty-one days to review it — forty-five if the layoff was part of a group reduction — and seven days to revoke after signing. Take every one of them.

Read for four things: severance amount and payout schedule, what happens to unvested equity, any non-compete or non-solicit clauses, and what the agreement says about unemployment claims. If the numbers are meaningful, spend an hour and a few hundred dollars on an employment lawyer. That review pays for itself more often than not.

Unemployment insurance is not charity — it is insurance your employer paid into on your behalf. File in your state's online portal within the first week, because many states have a waiting period and the clock does not start until you file. Have your employment dates, your employer's legal name, and your reason for separation ready.

If the claim is contested or denied, appeal. A large share of initial denials are overturned on appeal, and the process is usually a short written submission, not a courtroom.

A layoff qualifies you for a special enrollment period on the health insurance marketplace — usually sixty days — and for COBRA continuation of your old plan, which is expensive but preserves your doctors. Compare both before the enrollment window closes. If a spouse has employer coverage, that is often the cheapest route; you typically have thirty days to join it.

Then build a one-page money picture: liquid savings, essential monthly spend, and severance. Divide savings by essential spend. That number is your runway in months, and every decision you make for the next quarter gets calmer once you know it.

Before your laptop goes back, export anything you are entitled to keep: your personal contacts, performance reviews, and a written list of your projects with the numbers attached — revenue influenced, costs saved, users reached, teams led. You will need those numbers for your resume in two weeks and you will not remember half of them.

Connect on LinkedIn with the ten colleagues you would want as references or referral sources. A short, warm note now — while the connection is fresh — is worth ten cold messages later.

Do not start applying. Applications sent in the first week, from a stale resume and a rattled head, go into the pile that never gets read. Do not post a long public statement. Do not make any large financial moves — no 401(k) cash-outs, no major purchases, no new subscriptions to job-search tools you have not evaluated.

Your job in the first 72 hours is administrative stability. The search starts in week two, and it starts better because you waited.

RecoveryPath™ turns this sequence into a guided, phase-by-phase roadmap with checklists for benefits, finances, and the search kickoff — so the first weeks run on a plan instead of adrenaline. The free Job Search Tracker keeps every application organized once you begin.