The Week After Losing Your Job
For the first days after a layoff or a firing, before the job search begins in earnest. It helps you file the paperwork that matters, keep some shape to the day, and tell people in words that do not cost you anything.
Work · Work · Life Transitions · 8 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- File for unemployment in the first week — in most states the clock starts the day you apply.
- Write down your last day and what you are owed — final pay and unused leave are easy to lose track of.
- Check what happens to your health coverage — the gap is the part that catches people out.
- Set a get-up time and keep it — a day with no edges is harder than a busy one.
- Decide the one sentence you will tell people — having it ready saves you explaining it twelve times.
- Keep one appointment outside the house each day — leaving the house stops the week from blurring.
- Save the contacts and files you are allowed to — access tends to disappear sooner than you expect.
- Give yourself a date to start applying — a planned pause is rest, an unplanned one is dread.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.