Are We Prepared For a Layoff?

This week is a really tough week at work.  People at all levels of the company are getting laid off so there is a lot of “staring at the ground” going on as people deal with the prospect of losing their income.  While this has happened many times before at my large company, it’s hitting closer to home than it ever has before.  I’m seeing good friends getting their notices and I know that many more are coming later in the week.  I keep wondering how many of these people have prepared for a layoff.  It’s times like these that I like to go through my mental list of things I should be doing in case I am faced with the same situation.  (I’ve been told that I’m not at risk and should be able to keep my job so I’m breathing relatively easy for now).

Am I saving enough?

It’s a thought I have often.  We are saving well over 20% of our before tax income in our retirement accounts and are trying to build our emergency fund up higher, although I will confess I’ve slipped up on that goal more than a few times.  The good news is that we do have at least 6 months of income saved up and it’s easily accessible.  When you combine that with the safety nets that the local/federal government provide (unemployment benefits), our emergency fund should last us more than a year.  On top of that, the most likely scenario is that one of us would still be working.  In that case, we could go for years without my income because we have kept our fixed expenses very low.

Is my resume current?

I haven’t done a very good job of keeping up my resume, but with a few minutes of work, I think I could have it tuned up and ready to send out.  I’ve also kept up my contacts at previous companies and try to maintain a large network of contacts that I would certainly get in touch with if I found myself looking for work.  The most likely way that I would find a new job is through referrals and connections.  Blindly sending out a resume in this environment would likely not yield any results so my personal network is as important as ever.

Am I doing all I can to be valuable at work?

I’m definitely reevaluating my role at work and am going the extra mile to make sure things are done right and done quickly.  I’m also keeping in touch with my boss to be sure I’m doing all that’s needed.  I actually just met with him yesterday to lay out performance goals for the year and then we had lunch afterward.  My sense is that I’m still considered a valuable member of the team and would be one of the last to go if layoffs were to happen in our group.  I’ll continue to watch my performance and volunteer for extra work.  By doing this, it will help me gain even more visibility with my management chain and hopefully reinforce that I’m one of the key players on the team.

Are we keeping our bills to a minimum?

I’m still religiously watching our fixed monthly expenses so I know we are doing all we can to keep our bills low.  Our total fixed bills for things like mortgage, utilities, gas, food etc are still floating around 50% of our after tax income.  If we were to lose our jobs, we could probably reduce that another 5-7% by really locking down spending and getting rid of expenses like Netflix, cable and a couple other “extra” expenses that we have now.

All in all, I think we are doing all we can to prepare for the day that we might be faced with a layoff.  By spending far less than we make, and saving some of our monthly excess income, it is providing us with a level of security to weather most any storm.  If we hadn’t been doing this for so long, I think we’d be much more stressed out about potentially losing our jobs, that’s for sure.