A lot of companies announced cuts this month. If yours is one of them, you have probably spent the last few days refreshing your inbox and watching your calendar. And maybe it finally happened: a short meeting with HR, booked for tomorrow, with no agenda.
Here is what I would do between now and then.
The days after an announcement
After a company announces cuts, the individual meetings usually follow in waves. They are often short, booked with little notice, and run back to back. That is why the invite feels the way it does. It looks like everyone else's because it probably is.
Getting one is not a verdict. Some of these meetings are notifications. Some are about who stays and what changes for them. Some are about something else entirely, and the timing is a coincidence. You cannot tell which from the invite alone, and you do not need to. Whatever the meeting is, the same preparation helps, and it starts tonight.
Read your invite
Look at three things: who is on it, how long it is booked for, and how much notice you got. A short slot with HR and someone you don't usually report to reads differently from a check-in with your own manager. A meeting booked at the end of the day reads differently from one in the middle of a normal week.
I wrote a full guide to what those details tend to mean: what a surprise HR meeting usually means. Read it once, then come back here. This piece is about the layoff moment specifically.
Tonight
Write your own timeline. From memory, on a personal device, in your own words.
- When you started, and what your role is now.
- Recent reviews, raises, praise, or projects you led.
- Anything that changed recently: a new manager, a reorganization, work moved away from you.
- Anything you were promised in writing, and when.
Do not copy files, emails or documents off company systems to do this. Not tonight, and not after. Your memory and your own notes are enough for now.
The point of the timeline is not to argue your case in the meeting. It is so that tomorrow, when someone says a date or a reason, you already know whether it matches what you remember.
In the room
Listen more than you talk. These meetings are usually scripted, and the person delivering the news is often working from notes. You do not have to respond to everything in the moment.
Ask for specifics in writing. If they mention an end date, a final paycheck, benefits, or a package, it is reasonable to say: "Could you send me that in writing so I have it correctly?"
If a document appears, ask three questions before you do anything with it:
- "Does signing this mean I received it, or that I agree with it?"
- "When do you need it back?"
- "Can I take time to review it?"
Then don't sign in the room. You can thank them, take the papers, and say you will review them. That is an ordinary request, and it is the one I would make.
The first hour after
Write it all down while it is fresh: who was there, what was said, what you were handed, and any dates or numbers. Do it on your personal phone or laptop, before you talk it over with anyone.
Then don't reply to anything yet. Not the follow-up email, not the form, not the message from a coworker asking what happened. An hour of quiet costs you nothing. A fast reply sent in the worst hour of your week can.
When you want more help
You don't have to do this alone, and you don't have to pay to start.
- Free: tell the Advisor what's going on. It reads your situation and tells you what to do first.
- $29: the Advisor writes your script for the meeting, with one revision.
- $49: the Situation Pass adds the follow-up email and 30 days of Advisor access as things develop.
- $199: a Hehra Advocate, an independent HR professional who works for you, for up to 2 hours.
If your situation turns legal, for example a discrimination concern or a dispute over what you are owed, talk to an employment attorney. That is the right call, and the Advisor will tell you when you've reached it.
A layoff announcement takes away a lot of control very quickly. Preparing for one meeting gives a little of it back.