By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Career Resilience is all about being ready to deal with what comes. Thinking through scenarios, or contingency planning, is one way to prepare for possible outcomes. By thinking through your next steps before you are in that situation, you can ensure that you are better prepared for whatever does come to pass. 

After seven layoffs, I know the importance of ensuring my financial security. Here are my best practices for preparing for a possible job loss.

What would you do if you went to work tomorrow and found out it was your last day at work? If you've never had this experience, this prospect might be almost unthinkable. Let's take a few minutes for you to think through how this change might impact your life. Here are a few key areas you would need to address. 

Once you find out your job is ending, you'll need to figure out how to pay your bills without what may be your main income stream. You would need to find out about any final money you would receive from your employer, including your last paycheck, a vacation payout, and maybe even some kind of severance package. You would also need to explore other possible money you could access to pay for your main expenses until you could find a new job. This might include unemployment payments or your savings. 

In addition, realize that your health care coverage might end with your job. You will need to determine how you will pay for any health-related costs. This could include switching to a family member's plan, finding and paying for other health care coverage, or determining how to handle possible health care costs outside of an insurance plan. Each of these options has a different price tag and level of risk.

Ask yourself these questions about your current budget for your household:​​

• How much might I receive in unemployment insurance (UI) income on a weekly basis? 
• How closely do my current expenses line up with what I might receive from UI income?
• Which expenses might I minimize, pause, or eliminate to more closely align my income with my expenses?
• How might I pay for my remaining regular monthly bills?
• How will I manage health care costs? What insurance options are available? What are those costs?

How much money do I need to pay my current regular monthly expenses?

hile all of these questions might seem big and scary to contemplate, remember you're not in that situation at this time. Right now is a good time to do some research and preliminary thinking on how you might manage each of these factors. Consider doing the following to help inform your contingency planning:

Your Income 

• Review your previous month's bank statements. Identify how much you earn in a given month.
• Look up unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in your state. Find out how much you might receive if you were laid off by your employer and how long UI benefits last.
• Think about benefits you have from your employer that you would need to replace if your job ended and associated costs.
• Think about possible income streams you could create outside of your paycheck from your job. 

Your Expenses

• Review your previous month's bank and credit card transactions. Identify how much you spend in a given month. 
• Think about how much additional money you would need to pay your regular bills if the income from your job ended.
• ​Look through your monthly expenses. Identify which you might minimize, pause, or stop altogether if you were unemployed.
• If you have healthcare through your employer, consider where else you could get healthcare.  
• Review healthcare costs through Healthcare.gov and estimate your possible costs.

Your Savings​

• Review your previous month's bank statements. Identify how much you save in a given month.
• Look at your balances on your savings account(s). Think about how much savings you might need to use to pay your basic monthly expenses for the next six months in the event of a job loss. ​

What questions do you think you need to focus on as you do your contingency planning? Share your thoughts in the comments. 

By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady

Whether you're gainfully employed or looking for a new role, continuing to learn and grow is a valuable career resilience strategy. ​While you can certainly pursue college degrees or certifications, there are many informal ways to increase your knowledge. Here are three of my favorite ways to continue learning and growing.

Staying current on industry trends can be a challenge. One way to learn a little bit at a time is using social media. I use LinkedIn to learn a little at a time on topics that matter to me. Follow thought leaders and regularly read their posts to learn more about emerging trends and technologies. In addition, follow companies to stay current on their new products and positions in the marketplace. You can also follow hashtags for keywords you like to learn about. 

Here are a few topics I consistently learn about from social media posts: 

• I follow CliftonStrengths to learn about the 34 strength themes and how to leverage strengths in different work situations.
• I follow Christopher Voss to learn more about negotiation strategies.
• I follow Remit Sethi to learn about financial wellbeing.
• I follow the hashtag #careerwellbeing to find articles on best practices.

Webinars are an excellent way to learn about a topic in more detail, usually over the course of 30-60 minutes. In a webinar, you can hear a speaker lead you through content, highlight important points, and string those ideas together into a more cohesive whole. In addition, you may also have the opportunity to interact with other webinar attendees. Webinars may focus on presenting content, answering questions from live attendees, or getting the group to share ideas on a specific topic.

Here are a few webinars I have attended and what I took away from each: 

• I attended Kassy LaBorie's Virtual Training Hero Hangout monthly webinar to meet other trainers and learn virtual facilitation best practices. 
• I attended The Association for Talent Development - Nebraska Chapter's monthly Learning Leaders Monthly Meeting to chat with colleagues about each person’s challenges and possible approaches.
• I attended virtual meetings of The White Box Club to learn tips and tricks about managing my mindset during my career transition.
• I attended a Fredrickson Roundtable for Learning Leaders meeting to learn about a specific organization's process for designing and implementing a company-wide educational program.

Professional organizations are a great way to learn more about a wide variety of topics. For one, you can attend regularly scheduled meetings, which typically have an educational component, to learn industry-specific content. Most groups have a social component, whether it is networking time during meetings or separate events that focus on getting to know other members.

​There are also volunteer opportunities, from helping check people in at a monthly meeting, being on an event-specific committee, and taking on a leadership role. These opportunities provide multiple ways to learn from a structured event or learn by doing. 

Here are a few professional organizations I have been a part of and ways I have learned content and skills:
​

• I attended a monthly meeting of The Omaha Organizational Development Network to learn how to boost team performance using positive intelligence. 
• I designed and delivered a breakout session for the PACT MN ExcellenceShare event to teach people how to build their professional networks using LinkedIn.
• I developed relationships with presenters, coordinated virtual events, and produced one-hour learning sessions for people in career transition for The White Box Club. 
• I planned, organized, and facilitated Career Development Special Interest Group meetings for The Association for Talent Development - Nebraska Chapter to share career resilience strategies for members.