Warning Signs a Layoff Is Coming (and How Companies Decide Who Stays)

This week, Jeff and Greg are diving into a very upsetting topic: how to spot a layoff coming. If the thought of an impending layoff gives you anxiety, you are not alone. We’re going to give you the clear signs and practical steps you can take right now to protect yourself and turn a negative situation into a career relaunch.

In this episode, we cover:

• Obvious red flags that mean a layoff is coming
• What “Right Sizing” really means (and how companies use it)
• How to make yourself indispensable
• Why getting laid off is the "perfect out" for your next job interview
• What to gather RIGHT NOW while you still have access to company files
• The 3 things companies look at when deciding who to cut
• How being laid off can launch you into a better job

Listen in to help us, help you give yourself the best chance of landing your Next Job… NOW :)

Download Greg's FREE Layoff First Aid Kit: 

https://greglangstaff.kit.com/layoff-first-aid-kit

Greg’s FREE Resume Template is available here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/resume-templates

Greg’s FREE Resume Writing Course is available here: 

https://youtu.be/z9oEbG1GhqM?si=qOCB3yLLnETzFEJY

Greg’s Resume WRITING Services can be found here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/must-hire-packages  

Greg’s Resume REVIEW Services can be found here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/resume-linkedin-reviews

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And especially the people who are safest during layoffs are those who everyone feels we can't live without. So if you're quietly exceeding expectations, that might not be enough. We need to be more vocal about our strong performance. We need to make it very clear that we are adding a ton of value. So no one anywhere in that decision line is thinking you're the one we're gonna lay off.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Welcome to Next Job Now. The podcast where we help you get your next job right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Greg Langstaff. I'm a certified resume strategist. I've written over 2,000 resumes, and I love helping people get new jobs.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

And I'm Jeff, and I have a lot of questions about job searching. Together, we're gonna talk about everything you need to know about landing your next role. In this episode, we are gonna talk about how to spot a layoff coming. There's a kind of upsetting topic for anyone who has the anxiety of upcoming, impending layoff. I know that I've faced layoffs in the past, and they suck.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, and it can be like there can be years between when you expect you might get laid off and when you actually get laid off. It's a very long, painful process.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

So we're gonna talk about some of those signs to see it coming, what you can kind of do to prepare yourself, uh, and how to even use a layoff to relaunch your career in and find something better.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Before we dive in, if you've enjoyed this podcast or if you enjoy this episode, it would mean so much to both Jeff and myself if you would take a second to subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you're watching or listening on, and like the video and shoot us some comments as well in the on YouTube. We'd be happy to take some questions and start to integrate those into the podcast as well. So uh hit us up. But let's dive in, Jeff.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah. Can you actually see a layoff as coming 100% before it comes? Absolutely. Can I predict if my position is on the list?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

There are a lot of hints that you are going to be laid off, whether it's your exact position or your company is going to be affected. Both are things we want to be prepared for because if you are gonna get laid off, obviously we need to know that, but if others in your company are gonna get laid off, that could mean your role is going to get bigger, usually without any extra pay. And it could mean a second wave of layoffs is just a couple of months behind, and that could get you.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah. So even if you're not impacted directly from a layoff of being laid off, the impacts ripple.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

And your job is still going to be hit by the effects of company layoffs. You've said these are the signs a layoff

Signs a layoff is coming

SPEAKER_00 3:08

is coming. Budget or hiring freezes, yeah, delayed projects or canceled projects, an acquisition to your company, industry or internal layoffs, raises being paused, a restructuring or reorganization of your company, high executive turnover, reduced transparency, and probably the worst one, a mysterious meeting added to your calendar.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Oh, yeah. I mean, that one usually means it's happening now at that because you only get invited to the mysterious meeting uh five minutes before it starts.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Too late to call them sick.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Yeah, that won't protect you, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Right, yeah. Is there anything like those are all of those signs of a layoff coming? Are any of them there to prevent layoffs?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

There are certain behaviors that companies will exhibit when they're trying not to do layoffs, but what happens is those don't always work, so they happen to then just precede the layoffs. So, like hiring freezes, budget cuts, projects being canceled, raise pauses. Those are all things that companies will usually do when they're essentially not making enough money to cover the cost of the staff. That's a first line of defense, but often those fail, which is why then layoffs are the next step.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Hmm. And why do it usually kind of comes in like a mass layoff, right? Like layoffs happen in waves. Usually. So why that approach? Why do companies really do

Why do companies do mass layoffs?

SPEAKER_00 4:50

mass layoffs?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Okay, mass layoffs are very popular, but we have to remember that's what makes news. And what we don't see is that often so many companies, hundreds of companies, every day, every week, are laying off three people, two people. And that's actually who I get as a lot of my clients. They're not in a layoff that made national news, but though them and their two other people in their department got cut and they lost their jobs. So, like, I mean, it's the same reason that a company will do that, whether they're big or small, and the layoff is mass or individual. They just want their payroll to make financial sense with their income, their expenses, and maybe their goals.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Mm-hmm. And what usually drives so let's look at those like mass ones though. What's driving that? Is that trying to save them? The staff is the biggest cost, so let's cut that to save profits, or is it because those jobs are not real and they're not needed and they just had extra money at one point? So now they're what there's a phrase you've used before. What was this phrase? What's the phrase? The phrase it was like restructuring.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

Right sizing. Right sizing. Well, right sizing. What the heck

What is "right sizing"?

SPEAKER_01 6:12

is a right size? Right sizing is when a company doesn't want to say the terrible thing they did, which was laying off tons of people, whether it's 20 or 20,000. Right sizing is the way that the people who made that decision allow themselves to sleep at night. Because we right sized the staffing needs. It was wrong that we hired you. We're gonna make it right by firing you and everyone in your department.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

I wish you would not necessarily terminate those positions, but if you realize your organization is clunky and you're that big of a company with that much profit, how can we use those skills elsewhere to continue to grow, continue to feed our community as well as our company? Yeah. Like to say that those people probably have other skills. There's got to be some other job that will have value that we can also still remove the like clunkiness.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

I think I saw that to this is not defending anyone or anything, but I did see, I think in 2025 that Amazon had spent something like $1.8 billion in severance payouts.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

1.8 billion.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Bill. Bill billion. I think so, yeah. That was what the article said.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Has contract work replaced real jobs?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

I don't think so

Has contract work replaced real jobs

SPEAKER_01 7:38

largely across the board. Interesting. Yeah, because I don't see like too much contract work on the rise. Um, I know like it companies appreciate, I guess, a bit more flexibility, the option to let someone go without uh paying out a severance, but ultimately, like, I don't think it's like slowing down companies from laying people off when their staff aren't contract.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

So no. And I was like, I was 100% confident that you're gonna be like, yes, we have been replacing contract work, real jobs with contract work. Because I feel like when I was a hiring manager, getting a contract approved, possible. Yeah, getting a new position approved, never.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Well, you were in a unionized environment as well. It's it's different, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:27

If a layoff is coming, can loyalty or assertiveness, is there anything that we can do to protect ourselves

Is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from a layoff

SPEAKER_00 8:36

from being laid off?

SPEAKER_01 8:37

To protect yourself from getting laid off in an environment where layoffs are actively happening, you need to provide very clear value to your company. And then you need to be very vocal and visible about that. Because the people who do the best in their roles, and especially the people who are safest during layoffs, are those who everyone feels we can't live without. So if you're quietly exceeding expectations, that might not be enough. We need to be more vocal about our strong performance. We need to make it very clear that we are adding a ton of value. So no one anywhere in that decision line is thinking you're the one we're gonna lay off.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Talk to me about that decision line. So when layoffs are happening, how do companies decide who goes?

How do companies decide who to layoff

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Okay. So when layoffs are happening, the companies are deciding which positions to get rid of based on a few things. Okay. They're looking at uh salary, first of all. Naturally. If it's purely cost cutting, uh, they will look at who gets paid the most. They will also sometimes look at like who's been there the least amount of time. So like a nice policy that some companies have to protect their loyal people is like uh last in, first out, right? Which really sucks for those who just made the jump to this company because then they're kicked out. Um, the best way to do it, and there's no good way to do it, is like merit-based. So we're gonna cut our three lowest sales performers or our three you know worst coders or whatever it is. That is probably the best way to do it, but the thing is that's so subjective sometimes, and it's not that common either. Like companies are more likely to be like, oh, you make too much, or you haven't been here that long, as opposed to keeping their best people getting rid of their worst.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah, that made me think about um sorry, it goes back to like a sign of being laid off. And it's like when they ask what your job is, like when your boss is like, hey, what are your current projects? Oh, what's a list of your responsibilities? Yeah, what are your new processes up to date? Or just doing an audit.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Oh, an audit of what everyone's doing, especially if it's external, like a consultant comes in, that means layoffs are being considered heavily.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

The ironic part is with those external consultants coming in, often the consulting fees could pay for a bunch of the employees to stay. But that's consulting.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

That's consulting. I've been laid off, and I remember one, I remember the feeling of it absolutely sucking. Yeah, I saw it coming and I still got got right, like I couldn't, loyalty, assertiveness, there was nothing I could do. I thought I got ahead of it. Yeah, and I yeah, I was like, okay, no, I've I think I've like figured this out. I've and what some of the signs that I saw was like hiring freezes, I was asked to cut my budget by like 40%.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Dang.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

And I was like, okay, and I did it, and I cut my budget by 40% without any layoffs. And then I remember getting a text from my boss, and she was like, I just got laid off. And then I got another text that was like, Hey, are you coming in today? And I wasn't gonna go in that day because I was gonna be, I wasn't feeling great. And I was like, Oh, yeah, I'm on my way. Like one of my colleagues messaged me.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

And I was like, oh man, they're gonna tell me about you know my boss who just lost her job. Right. So I already knew that they lost their job because I got the text. Yeah, so I go in, boom, me too. Oh maybe this is why I'm jaded about like a restructuring. Yeah, what they do, they posted this a very similar job, right? And it's just like that really hit, and like that sucked, but I saw it coming. I still got got the rose of this story. Is I got home and I had a job interview in my email.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Because I started looking about a month earlier when I saw the signs coming. That is a great point. That's kind of the moral of this whole podcast. And within my I scheduled my interview one week later, got that job.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Okay, so this is why we need to look to like at these things to see if a layoff could be coming, because you could end up best case in Jeff scenario, where I imagine that you got some severance pay and then you started your new job and you were getting double pay for a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Uh, the it kind of it all worked out nicely in terms of like uh the timeline where that the job that I got didn't start right away.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

So I got but I had a little bit of stress-free recovery time vacation to work through.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah, what did it feel like when you got laid off?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

I was shattered, like it really was a quite emotional time. Like, I at first I was so furious, yeah. I was immediately upset. I like you know, went home, just sat on the couch, kind of like felt empty, yeah. Right, and then when I got the email that was like, hey, would like to invite you in for an interview from another company, from and it's like it was with the yeah, with another company, and I was like, amazing. Like I did the right thing, I felt this coming, I did all of the things I needed to do. I tried to keep my job. It was there was a provincial government thing that they everyone had to cut their budgets. I get it. You know, it I don't think it was personal, it was certainly financial, but it still doesn't matter. Like, you try your best to like protect your employees, but then you go, yeah, right? So, like that sucked. I felt so emotional, but then I felt better. Obviously, that like resentfulness lingered for longer than I wish it did. Yeah, because I just remember like I tried so hard and I did so much to try to help. Yeah. So I think at the end of the day, like I learned a lot about that to be like you can do the most you can. And when you're given a job, you do the the job the best you can, and that's what's gonna lead you to the next thing. Yeah, right. I could have checked out when I saw layoffs coming, but I don't think that what I got and what helped me get the next job is tell me about a time that you had to reduce a budget. Right? Like, you know, you have to you have to keep going through it. Do the best you can do so that when you have another opportunity, it's not like you checked out.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Right? Layoffs are rarely personal, it's so infrequent. We've talked about this on this podcast. It's not you. Nope. Anyway, I keep going off on this.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

No, it's a good point. And like one thing I try to get across when you get laid off from a job, that is the best reason to have left a job. So if someone asks, why did you leave your last job? Like the best thing you could say is, I got laid off because then it wasn't your fault. It wasn't a performance thing. You didn't choose to bail on your old company, you didn't have any problems with people there, they didn't choose to lay you off because you were bad at your job. It's the perfect out. So at least know that it makes you look much better than any other reason for leaving your job.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

If we do see a layoff coming, what can we do?

If we see a layoff coming, what can we do?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Well, I think if we see a layoff coming, like it's time to get the resume in order. And like one thing you can that's a huge advantage is you still have access to all your company's information, meaning you can look up what your sales numbers have been the last three years.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

You can see what percent collect the information while you have it.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Yes. Do you know how many times I've talked to clients who've been laid off? And I'm I'm asking, like, okay, well, uh, how did we increase the conversion rate on on this like sales funnel you built? And they're like, I don't, I don't know. I've uh was it 20%, 80%? I don't, and I'm like, if you had just grabbed that information while you were still there, we could write such a strong resume compared to just like going off of memory. So gather the data, the evidence that you've been doing a good job.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Start putting your resume together now, get the LinkedIn fired up, and then best case scenario, you're in kind of a situation Jeff was in where you have a job offer or at least an interview waiting for you the day you get laid off.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

I was very lucky, and that I felt so good that it paid off, that I saw the signs and I was proactive, and I did all of the things that you recommend, and it worked.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Great.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

So I hope a layoff doesn't come for you. And I hope that you get to leave for a new opportunity because it per works perfectly. But sometimes a layoff will lead you to the next best thing. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Now it's time for our unusual interview question where we ask each other questions that we hope you never get asked. Greg, how many collar shirts do you have? I've got at least 30 collared shirts.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

I would say, like, because I I went on a big kick of buying like these,

Unusual Interviews!

SPEAKER_01 18:24

right? And I've got probably 20 plus, maybe 24. Where do you get them?

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Is it the same? Is everyone the same company? Do you go to one particular store?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah, I go to Winners. Yeah, this is all winners. They're pretty much all from Winners. If you're in the US, this is Ross, basically. It's all like it's like brand name stuff, not at brand prices, TJ Maxx or whatever. Yeah. Um, same thing. Yeah, they're pretty much all from there. Or like Uniclo, the plain ones are Uniclo.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yeah. And then I've got like some formal as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

This isn't your formal attire?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

No, my electric pizza shirt is not my formal attire.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Wait, you refer to this as pizza or flamingo?

SPEAKER_01 19:08

When someone's like that's a watermelon, I think, actually. Yeah, first of all. That's a flamingo. Get your knee on something. Yeah. I don't know. That looks like pizza as well.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Certainly does look like pizza.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

With green crust. Alright, Jeff. Since we're getting all smart about the clothing, what's your favorite video game of all time?

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Conquerors Bad Fur Day.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

No one's heard of it.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

No one someone's heard of it.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Tell us.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Um it's not appropriate for the podcast, which is a wild thing to say about a video game.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

I'll sum it up from the outside. It's about a drunk squirrel.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yeah, Conquer, who is also featured in Diddy Kong Racing. Uh, Conquers Bad Fur Day, where Conquer gets drunk and tries to find his way home from the pub. N64. N64 is the best version. They tried to remake it, I think, like on a later like Xbox or whatever. Uh kind of like a remastered. It's not the same. There's something about the like pixelized drunk squirrel getting home. Playing that at 12 years old. What a time!

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Inappropriate.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Very inappropriate. Probably one of the most violent games you can let a 12-year-old play. Oh my gosh. I'm sure it's like 18 plus. Like my parents. I mean, I've talked about my mom on here before, so she let me play it. She had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Okay. Well, yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Awesome. If you've enjoyed this episode, please rate, share, follow, subscribe, or send this to someone who uh might be anticipating a layoff coming. And also, there is a free resource available. The layoff first aid kit is available on Greg's website, greglangstaff.com. Join us next week when we talk about what to do the day after you've been laid off.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Great. Thanks so much, everyone. We'll see you next week.