Action Guide

If You Received Notice or Still Have Company Access

Some employers provide advance notice or keep workers employed during a transition period. Others announce the layoff and shut off access almost immediately.

If you still have authorized access to company systems, use that time carefully. Gather the personal employment information you may need later, confirm the terms of your separation, and move personal accounts away from your work email address or phone number.

Before your employment or access ends:

• Get written confirmation of your last day worked and official separation date.
• Ask whether you are expected to continue working through that date.
• Confirm when your final pay will arrive and what it will include.
• Check your recorded PTO or vacation balance.
• Confirm the end date for medical, prescription, dental, vision, life, and disability coverage.
• Save copies of your separation notice, severance agreement, and every attachment.
• Download personal employment records you are authorized to keep.
• Save contact information for HR, payroll, benefits administrators, and appropriate professional connections.
• Update personal accounts that use your work email address or phone number.
• Ask how and when company property must be returned.
• Request a recommendation letter or written reference before supervisors and coworkers scatter to the four winds.

Useful personal employment records may include:

• Offer letter and employment agreement
• Current job description
• Pay statements and tax forms
• Benefits summaries and plan contact information
• Employee handbook and applicable policies
• Performance reviews, awards, and written recognition
• Bonus, commission, or incentive plans that apply to you
• PTO or vacation records
• Approved expense reports and receipts
• Nonconfidential information about your responsibilities and accomplishments

Only keep records you are entitled and authorized to keep. Do not forward your entire mailbox, download company folders, or take customer information, employee data, trade secrets, proprietary work, passwords, confidential communications, or other company property.

If your access has already been shut off, do not attempt to bypass it. Make a list of the personal records you need and request them from HR, payroll, or the appropriate benefits administrator.

The First Week

Once the immediate paperwork is contained, work through the items that apply to you:

• Apply for unemployment through the official state website.
• Compare health-coverage options before a deadline chooses for you.
• Review any severance agreement and write down your questions.
• Check final pay, PTO, bonuses, commissions, expenses, and deductions against your records.
• List the cash available and the essential bills due in the next 30 days.
• Contact payroll or benefit administrators about anything missing or unclear.
• Decide whether the facts justify speaking with an employment attorney, union representative, benefits adviser, tax professional, or another qualified professional.
• Save submissions, confirmation numbers, emails, notices, and delivery receipts.

You do not have to complete all of this in one sitting. Start with the earliest real deadline.

Final Pay and Other Compensation

Final wages, PTO, bonuses, commissions, expenses, and severance are not one big bucket of money.

Wages for work already performed and approved expenses may already be owed. PTO payouts, bonuses, commissions, incentives, and equity may depend on state law and the wording of a contract, policy, or compensation plan. Severance is usually additional compensation offered under a contract, plan, policy, or agreement.

Federal law does not generally require paid vacation, severance, or an immediate final paycheck. State law may provide additional rights, and an employer’s written policy or contract may create obligations. Check the rules that apply where you worked instead of accepting “that’s our policy” as the final word.

Compare your final pay documents with your records. Check:

• Pay-period dates and hours
• Salary through the correct date
• Overtime, shift differentials, or other premiums
• PTO or vacation balance and payout calculation
• Commissions, bonuses, and incentive-plan terms
• Approved expenses
• Benefit deductions
• Retirement or HSA contributions withheld from the final check
• Deductions for equipment, advances, loans, or alleged amounts owed

If something is missing, ask payroll for a written explanation. Refer to the plan, policy, pay record, approval, or other document supporting your question.

Health Insurance and Other Benefits

Do not ask only when your health insurance ends. Ask when each benefit ends. Medical coverage may continue through the end of the month while another benefit stops on your final day.

Confirm the end date and administrator contact for:

• Medical and prescription coverage
• Dental and vision insurance
• Life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Health savings account (HSA)
• Health or dependent-care flexible spending account (FSA)
• Health reimbursement arrangement (HRA)
• Employee assistance program
• Legal, identity-protection, pet-insurance, and other voluntary benefits

If you or a covered family member has prescriptions, appointments, ongoing treatment, or pending claims, contact the plan or insurer directly. Do not cancel medically necessary care based on a guess about coverage.

Compare your health-coverage options

Depending on your situation, options may include:

• Continuing the employer plan through COBRA or a state continuation law
• Enrolling through the Health Insurance Marketplace
• Joining an eligible family member’s job-based plan
• Applying for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
• Using Medicare, VA health care, or another program for which you qualify

COBRA can preserve the same group coverage, but you may have to pay the full premium plus an administrative charge unless the employer subsidizes it. A Marketplace plan may have a different premium, deductible, provider network, prescription list, and start date. Compare the total cost and coverage, not just the monthly premium.

For plans subject to federal COBRA, qualified beneficiaries generally receive at least 60 days to elect coverage, measured from the later of the loss of coverage or the date the election notice is provided. Losing job-based coverage can also create a Marketplace Special Enrollment Period, generally during the 60 days before or 60 days after the coverage loss. An eligible job-based plan generally must allow at least 30 days to request special enrollment after the loss of other coverage. Medicaid and CHIP accept applications year-round.

Those deadlines are separate. Put each one on your list.

HSA, FSA, and HRA details

An HSA belongs to you and remains yours after the job ends. Whether you may make new contributions depends on your continued eligibility under federal HSA rules.

An FSA or HRA follows the employer plan’s terms. Ask:

• What is the last date I may incur an eligible expense?
• What is the deadline for submitting claims?
• Does a grace period, carryover, spend-down rule, or COBRA option apply?
• What happens to the debit card and any remaining balance?

Do not assume an FSA works like an HSA. It usually does not.

Apply for Unemployment

Apply promptly through the official unemployment agency for the state where you worked. If you worked remotely, lived in a different state, or earned wages in more than one state, the correct filing state may not be obvious. Start with a state unemployment agency and ask how your wages should be handled.

Your former employer does not make the final eligibility decision. The state unemployment agency does.

When you apply:

• Use the official state agency website. Paid ads and look-alike websites can lead to fees, scams, or identity theft.
• Report the employer’s information and reason for separation accurately.
• Report severance, PTO payouts, bonuses, part-time income, freelance work, and other compensation as the application requires.
• Save the application, confirmation number, username, and submitted documents.
• Complete weekly or biweekly certifications if required.
• Keep required job-search records.
• Read every agency message and respond by the deadline.
• If the claim is denied or calculated incorrectly, read the appeal instructions immediately. Appeal windows can be short.

Do not wait for severance to run out unless the state agency instructs you to. States treat severance and other separation payments differently.

Watch for Possible Legal or Policy Issues

A layoff is not automatically illegal because it was unfair, badly handled, or wrapped in nonsense language. It is not automatically lawful because the company called it a “reorganization,” either. Labels are not magic spells.

Consider getting qualified advice promptly if the facts may involve:

• Discrimination based on a protected characteristic
• Retaliation after reporting discrimination, harassment, safety concerns, wage problems, fraud, or other protected activity
• Recent use of or request for protected medical, family, military, or other leave
• A disability or pregnancy-related accommodation request
• Whistleblowing
• Unpaid wages, commissions, bonuses, expenses, or other compensation
• A workplace injury or workers’ compensation claim
• A written employment contract, severance plan, union agreement, or public-employment rule
• A large layoff or plant closing that may raise federal or state WARN questions
• Pressure to sign immediately, missing attachments, or terms that conflict with what you were told
• Suspicious timing, inconsistent explanations, or evidence that similar workers were treated differently

Federal WARN generally requires covered employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar days’ advance written notice of certain plant closings and mass layoffs. Coverage, employee counts, thresholds, exceptions, and remedies are technical. Some states have broader notice laws. A layoff without 60 days’ notice does not automatically violate WARN, and a smaller layoff is not automatically exempt from every state law.

Legal and agency filing deadlines may be short. Preserve records and check the applicable deadline early. Do not assume you can wait until severance discussions end.

What Can Wait

Unless a real deadline says otherwise, you do not have to:

• Rewrite your resume the same day
• Announce the layoff publicly
• Explain the whole thing to everyone you know
• Apply to 47 jobs before you understand your pay and insurance
• Buy the first resume, coaching, placement, or debt-relief service aimed at you
• Decide immediately what to do with a retirement account
• Sign severance just to make the paperwork disappear
• Make a permanent financial decision while you are still missing basic facts

Protect the time-sensitive stuff first. The rest can wait until your brain is no longer juggling an insurance deadline, unemployment paperwork, and a fresh pile of corporate nonsense at the same time.