Laid off: the first 14 days, and the switch

What to get in writing before you leave, the money you are owed and how it is taxed, what happens to your health cover, your pension and your visa, how to tell the story, and a twelve week plan. Written for ten markets, every figure sourced. Free, all five sections.

Section 01

The first 14 days

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You have just been told, or you are about to be. Everything below is here because it is time limited or hard to reverse, and it is in the order it matters.

Get this one wrong slowly

Do not resign, and do not sign a "mutual separation" or "voluntary" letter in the meeting. In most countries resignation removes your notice pay, your redundancy or retrenchment money, and in several of them your unemployment benefit. A friendlier label offered for signing today is usually what costs you.

Hour 0 to hour 1: still in the room

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The rest of this is free. Sign in and keep reading.

Every rule, threshold, cost and timeline on this page is free to read, and so is every other country guide on the site. We ask you to sign in so your place is kept and you can come back to it. There is nothing to pay here.

Takes a few seconds with Google or your emailNo card, now or laterYou land back on this paragraph

Write down the words used. Redundancy, restructuring, position eliminated, retrenchment, performance, mutual separation. The label decides which rights you have, and it is far harder to change later than to record now. Note who said it and when.
Ask five questions, write the answers down. What is my last working day? Am I working my notice, paid in lieu, or on garden leave? When does my system access stop? What is the date of my final settlement? Who is my contact after today?
Say one sentence and nothing more: "Please send all of this to me in writing, including to my personal email, and I will come back to you." You do not have to react, agree or negotiate in that meeting.
Give them your personal email and phone in writing before the account closes. Settlement documents routinely fail to arrive because the only address on file was the work one.

Hour 1 to hour 8: access ends without warning

Assume laptop, email, chat and single sign on stop the moment the meeting ends. In many layoffs access is cut before it starts.

Yours, take it today

Every payslip you can reach, plus your year end tax document: Form 16 in India, P60 and P45 in the United Kingdom, W-2 in the United States, Lohnsteuerbescheinigung in Germany.
Signed contract, every amendment, offer letter, and any bonus or equity plan.
Performance reviews, ratings, promotion letters, written praise addressed to you.
Benefit and pension statements, visa paperwork, unclaimed expenses.
Personal numbers for the 5 people who would speak for you, not their work numbers.

Not yours, leave it

Customer and prospect lists, CRM exports, pipeline reports, pricing.
Source code, models, designs, internal documents and decks, including ones you wrote.
Anything under your confidentiality clause or IP assignment, which in most contracts is everything you made on the job.
Copying these turns a layoff into litigation and usually voids the severance. The work belongs to them; your record of having done it belongs to you, and that is all section 04 needs.

Section 02

The money you are owed

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This section is free as well. It opens the moment you are signed in.Open it, free

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Section 03

Insurance, pension and the visa clock

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This section is free as well. It opens the moment you are signed in.Open it, free

Section 04

The story: CV, profile and the interview answer

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This section is free as well. It opens the moment you are signed in.Open it, free

Section 05

The 90 day plan back

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This section is free as well. It opens the moment you are signed in.Open it, free