Layoff Survivor's Playbook: What to Do in the First 72 Hours

If you just got laid off, the next 72 hours matter more than the next 72 days.

Most people spend that window on the wrong things. They update LinkedIn. They post the "open to work" announcement. They start applying frantically. None of that is wrong, exactly, but it is not the highest-leverage move you can make in the first three days.

The highest-leverage moves are the ones with deadlines you do not know about yet. Severance you have not signed. Benefits you have not elected. Unemployment claims that compound by the week you delay them. Decisions that, if you make them in the wrong order, cost you tens of thousands of dollars and months of runway.

This is the 72-hour playbook. It is mechanical. Run it in order. The motivational stuff comes later.

If you have already been laid off and you are 60 days in, this is not your post. Read Surviving the AI Layoff Wave: An Engineer's Pivot Playbook instead.

Hour 0-24: Stop, Breathe, Read Everything Twice

The single biggest mistake people make in the first 24 hours is signing the severance agreement.

Do not sign it. Not today. Not tomorrow. Read every paragraph of every document HR sent you, and assume that anything you can negotiate, you can only negotiate before you sign.

What you should actually do in the first day

1. Save everything. Forward your offer letter, your last performance review, your bonus plan, your equity grants, and the layoff paperwork to a personal email address. You will lose access to your work email faster than you expect, often within hours. If you have already lost access, log into Workday, ADP, Carta, or whatever your company uses for HR and equity, and screenshot or download every page.

2. Read the severance agreement twice. Not skimmed. Read it. Look specifically for:

The amount (usually expressed as N weeks of base pay)
The deadline to sign (often 21 days, sometimes 45 if you are over 40 and they are required to give you the ADEA window)
The non-disparagement clause (almost always overbroad)
The non-compete or non-solicit clause (varies wildly by state, and most are unenforceable in California, Washington, and increasingly Massachusetts and New York)
The release of claims (this is what you are giving up in exchange for the money)
What happens to unvested equity (usually forfeited, sometimes accelerated, occasionally negotiable)
COBRA subsidy (whether the company pays for any number of months of your premiums)

3. Check your final pay. Your final paycheck must include unused PTO in most US states. In some states (California especially), unused PTO is wages and not paying it out is illegal. Bonus accruals are state-specific and contract-specific. Read your bonus plan. If you were due a Q1 bonus and you got laid off in February, you may be entitled to it depending on the plan language.

4. Do not sign anything yet. I know I said this already. I am saying it again because the urge is strong, the email is sitting there, and the recruiter from HR keeps emailing you to "wrap things up." You have time. Use it.

What you should not do in the first day

Do not announce the layoff publicly. Not on LinkedIn, not on Twitter, not on Blind. Wait at least 48 hours, ideally a week. The "I was just laid off" post feels cathartic but it permanently anchors the narrative for everyone who searches your name. Once you have a story you actually want to tell ("I am pivoting to AI infrastructure" or "I am taking three weeks off and then jumping into the search"), then post.

Do not tell recruiters yet. They will start emailing within a day or two. Reply with "I am taking some time to evaluate options, can we connect in two weeks?" Buy yourself the runway to figure out what you actually want before the funnel gets noisy.

Hour 24-48: The Severance Math

Severance is negotiable more often than people think. Whether you can move the number depends on your tenure, your level, the size of the layoff, and how clean the legal release is. But the bigger thing most people get wrong is the math itself.

Calculate your real runway

Take the severance number, not the gross. Subtract:

Federal income tax (severance is taxed as supplemental wages, often withheld at a flat 22% federally, more if you are at higher brackets)
State income tax
The 7.65% FICA hit
Whatever is left of your benefits costs in the gap

For a $150k base earner getting 12 weeks of severance, the gross is about $34,600. The take-home is closer to $22,000-$24,000. That is your runway, not the bigger number.

Then add:

PTO payout (state-dependent, usually taxed the same way)
Pro-rated bonus if applicable
Unemployment benefits (more on this in a moment)

What is actually negotiable

In a typical mid-size tech layoff, the parts of the severance package that move are:

Number of weeks. The default is often "1 week per year of service" or a flat "12 weeks." A polite ask for a few more weeks, especially if you have been there 3+ years or are at a senior level, is a normal conversation. The script is short: "I appreciate the package. Given my tenure and the timing, would it be possible to extend severance by 4 weeks? That would help me bridge to my next role."
COBRA subsidy. Many companies will pay 3-6 months of your COBRA premium. If they did not offer it, ask. The company's cost is small relative to the goodwill.
The non-disparagement clause. You can often get it narrowed to mutual (so the company also agrees not to disparage you).
Unvested equity. This is the long shot. Most companies will not budge. But if you were within weeks of a vesting cliff, ask. The script: "I had X RSUs vesting on [date], which is [N] days after my last day. Would you consider accelerating the vest, or paying out the cash equivalent?" The answer is usually no, but the cost of asking is zero.

When you cannot negotiate

In a large layoff (Meta, Google, Microsoft scale), the package is almost never negotiable individually. The legal exposure of cutting different deals for different people in a protected class is too high. They will tell you "this is the standard package for everyone in the affected group" and they mean it. In that case, focus your energy on the COBRA decision and the next job.

Hour 24-48: The COBRA vs Marketplace Decision

This is the single decision that costs people the most money after a layoff, and almost nobody runs the math correctly.

When you lose your job, your employer-sponsored health insurance ends (usually at the end of the month, sometimes immediately). You have two main options:

Option 1: COBRA

COBRA lets you keep your employer's plan for up to 18 months. The catch: you pay the full premium plus a 2% admin fee. The full premium is what your employer was paying plus what was being deducted from your paycheck. For a family plan, this is often $1,800-$2,500 per month. For a single person on a typical PPO, often $700-$900 per month.

When COBRA makes sense:

You are mid-treatment with a specific provider and switching plans would disrupt care
You have already hit your deductible or out-of-pocket max for the year (huge factor in late Q3 or Q4)
Your employer is paying the premium for you for several months as part of severance
You expect to be re-employed within 60 days (you can elect COBRA retroactively within 60 days, so you can wait, see if you need it, and only pay if something happens)

Option 2: ACA Marketplace (healthcare.gov or your state exchange)

A layoff is a "qualifying life event," which gives you a 60-day Special Enrollment Period to sign up for a marketplace plan. Marketplace plans are usually 30-70% cheaper than COBRA for comparable coverage, and they come with subsidies based on your projected annual income.

This is the part most people miss: Your projected annual income is now your year-to-date earnings plus your severance plus any unemployment you expect to receive. If you got laid off in March, your projected 2026 income might be much lower than what you would have made full-year. That makes you eligible for premium tax credits that can reduce a $700/month plan to $200/month or less.

When the marketplace makes sense:

You have not hit your deductible yet
You are healthy and want catastrophic coverage at low cost
Your projected income for the year qualifies you for subsidies
You expect the job search to take 3+ months

The retroactive trick

You have 60 days from your last day of coverage to elect COBRA. You can wait. If you have a medical emergency in week 4, you can retroactively elect COBRA, pay the premiums, and have coverage backdated. That gives you a free 60-day insurance window where you can apply to marketplace plans, decide carefully, and only fall back to COBRA if you need it.

This is not a loophole. It is in the law. Use it.

Hour 48-72: File for Unemployment Today

Every state has a different unemployment system, and almost all of them are bad at communicating that delays cost you real money.

File the claim within 72 hours of your last day. Benefits are not retroactive in most states. Every week you delay is a week of benefits you forfeit. The maximum weekly benefit varies wildly:

California: ~$450/week
New York: ~$504/week
Texas: ~$577/week
Massachusetts: ~$1,033/week
Washington: ~$1,019/week

Yes, that is a 2x+ difference. Yes, it is unfair. File anyway.

What you need to file

Your last employer's name, address, and EIN
Your last day worked
Your reason for separation ("layoff," "reduction in force," or "lack of work" - never "quit" or "fired for cause" if it was a layoff)
Your gross earnings from the past 18 months
Your bank info for direct deposit

Severance and unemployment

In some states, severance reduces or delays your unemployment benefits. In others, it does not. Check your state. If severance does delay benefits, sometimes you can negotiate severance as a "lump sum signing bonus" instead of "salary continuation," which often does not affect unemployment timing. This is state-specific and worth a 30-minute call with an employment lawyer if your severance is large.

Keep certifying weekly

Most states require you to certify each week that you are still unemployed and looking. Set a recurring calendar reminder. Missing a week of certification often means losing that week of benefits.

Hour 48-72: The 401(k), HSA, and FSA Decisions

Three retirement and savings accounts have deadlines that bite you if you ignore them.

401(k)

Your options:

Leave it where it is (often allowed if balance is over $5,000). Lowest effort. Often higher fees and worse fund choices than alternatives.
Roll it to your next employer's 401(k) (when you have one). Clean.
Roll it to a traditional IRA at Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab. More fund choices, no fees from a former employer's plan.
Cash it out. Almost never do this. You pay income tax plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty. A $50k 401(k) becomes about $30k after taxes and penalties.

If you had an outstanding 401(k) loan, you usually have until the tax filing deadline of the year you separated to repay it. If you do not, the unpaid balance is treated as a distribution and taxed.

HSA

HSAs are portable. You own the account. You can keep it where it is or roll it to a different HSA custodian (Fidelity has a $0 HSA, which is the default recommendation if your old one charges monthly fees). You do not lose the money. You do not have a deadline.

FSA

FSAs are use-it-or-lose-it, and a layoff usually triggers the deadline. Whatever is in your FSA, you typically have until the end of the month of separation (sometimes 90 days, plan-specific) to spend it on qualified expenses. Refill prescriptions. Buy a year of contact lenses. Stock up on first aid supplies. If you do not, the money goes back to your employer.

Hour 72+: How to Talk About Being Laid Off in Interviews

The thing every laid-off engineer dreads in the next interview is the moment a recruiter asks "so why did you leave your last role?"

Here is the answer, in three sentences:

"I was part of a layoff in [month, year]. The company cut [department/function] as part of [a broader reorg / cost reduction / shift in priorities]. I am using the time to focus on [specific area] and find a role where I can [specific impact]."

That is the whole script.

What works in this script

It is direct. You name the layoff. You do not euphemize it as "transition" or "exploring opportunities." Recruiters can tell when you are dancing.
It depersonalizes it. "The company cut [department]" makes it about the business, not your performance.
It pivots forward. The third sentence is what the next 30 minutes of the conversation should be about, not the layoff itself.

What does not work

"I was let go." Vague. Lets the recruiter wonder if you were fired for cause.
"We mutually agreed to part ways." Code for fired in HR-speak. Do not use it if you were laid off; use the actual word.
"It was a performance issue I disagree with." Even if true. Save it for after you have an offer.
Trash-talking the company. Even when warranted. The interviewer is trying to figure out what you would say about them in a year.

When the layoff was clearly performance-targeted

Sometimes "layoffs" target underperformers. If you were on a PIP, or if your manager had been signaling, the answer changes slightly:

"I was part of a layoff in [month]. Looking back, my work in [area] was not aligned with where the team was heading. In my next role I am focused on [where you actually want to be] which is closer to my strengths."

You are admitting fit, not failure. That lands better than denying the obvious.

A Quick 72-Hour Checklist

Print this. Tape it to your monitor.

Hour 0-24:

• Forward all HR docs, equity grants, offer letters, and performance reviews to personal email
• Read severance agreement twice; do not sign yet
• Verify final paycheck includes PTO payout and any owed bonus
• Note the deadline to sign severance
• Do not post on LinkedIn yet

Hour 24-48:

• Calculate real take-home severance after taxes
• Decide which severance terms to negotiate (weeks, COBRA subsidy, non-disparagement, equity)
• Send a single, polite negotiation email
• Compare COBRA cost vs marketplace plans on healthcare.gov
• Check if you have hit your annual deductible (changes the math)

Hour 48-72:

• File for unemployment in your state
• Set a recurring reminder to certify benefits weekly
• Decide on 401(k) (leave, roll, or move to IRA)
• Spend down FSA balance on qualified expenses
• Confirm HSA is portable; move if old custodian has fees

Hour 72+:

• Sign severance once you are satisfied with terms
• Make the LinkedIn post (optional, with a forward-looking framing)
• Practice the 3-sentence layoff script out loud until it feels normal
• Start the actual job search

What you do not need to do in the first 72 hours

You do not need to apply to jobs.

This is the counterintuitive part. A week of intentional setup, with clean financials and a real plan, beats two months of panicked applying. The job search starts in week 2. The first 72 hours are about preserving runway, locking in benefits, and building the financial floor that lets you say no to the wrong offer.

If you are reading this 72 hours past your layoff and feel behind: you are not. The clock that actually matters is the runway, and you just bought yourself more of it by reading this instead of refreshing LinkedIn.

The next playbook is the 60-day pivot. Go run that one when you are ready.

And when the next offer comes in: negotiate it. The single most expensive moment of your career is the one where you do not.