Here's how to prepare for a layoff—before it happens
Ready to be laid off?
You should be. According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor statistics, the United States saw the highest number of layoffs in two years this March—and more job cuts may be on the way.
But Jaimie Hopkins, managing partner of Wealth Solutions at Carson Group, told Yahoo Finance there's no a reason to wait passively for the pink slip to be slid under your office door (or on your cubicle Herman Miller chair.)
He outlined some ways workers can prepare before they're sent packing.
First, don't give your bosses and excuse to put you on the layoff list. In other words: keep your head down and work hard.
"Don't go to that negative spot and you let your performance start to drag down if you hear those rumors at work," he said. "Make it super hard for your employer to let you go." He added: "Move forward. Work hard. If you kind of pull that negative spot, you're going to make it easier to be potentially in that layoff group."
Make your boss an offer they can't refuse
If you're convinced you're heading to the chopping block you might want to go to your boss and propose a deal. Hopkins has advised workers to propose working part-time, which would maintain their employment status (and health insurance possibly) while the company sorts out its cost-cutting. It would also give you extra time to search for another full-time job.
In other words: buy you time.
"Part time could allow you to kind of make keep some of that income, protect your status there. And then, you know, spend more time searching for like, what's the next great thing for you?" Hopkins said.
He added that workers could even negotiate such an arrangement near the date of the layoff.
"It's not too late, even if you get to the time period in which you're being let go or giving people a couple of weeks, you could always broach the topic of, would you be open to part time? Or consulting?," Hopkins said. "I've seen that in a lot of different industries out there."
Get your affairs in order
Hopkins also recommended that workers attend to their finances before getting laid off; his clients often hold off on cost-cutting until they're let go. That's too late. "A lot of those bills are still showing up a month later. So the month you get laid off, you now have high bills, the next month you still have high bills, and you don't have the income to offset that," Hopkins said.
He added: "Get ahead of your bills. I hit that one a lot for people because a lot of people do that after they get let go but then you have that month lag where subscriptions and other things start hitting your cash flow. You want to get a month ahead of that."
Hopkins said that his firm uses a technique called "bucketing" to help clients cut costs.
"Bucketing is just the notion that you take your assets or investments and you put them towards different things," Hopkins said. "So we often talks about needs, wants and wishes. And so you can put your expenses into here are my necessities, here are the things I like to have, and here's the things that really are extra."
Hopkins explained that clients should distinguish between essential and non-essential expenses. For instance, he said they might want to purchase less expensive food or reduce their number of subscription services. "You don't," he said, "need somebody to help you with that. But you just have to be proactive, right? Live life by design, not by default."
Dylan Croll is a reporter and researcher at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @CrollonPatrol.
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