Summary: Lost your UX job in a layoff? Use this step-by-step guide to preserve your professionalism and optimism during this stressful experience.
Your company’s rumor mill has been churning for weeks about layoffs, but you’ve tried not to give it much thought. You have a good relationship with your manager. You’ve delivered quality UX work and results. You tell yourself that you’re indispensable.
However, the next day, you turn on your work laptop and discover you cannot log in. Or a strangely titled, brief meeting is scheduled on your work calendar in the office’s windowless meeting room, or online. The outcome you’ve avoided contemplating is happening — you’re being laid off! What should you do?
A Note on Atypical Layoff Situations
This article’s guidance assumes that you had a routine, professional relationship with your employer and are undergoing a layoff for myriad business reasons.