Days 1-3: stabilize

The first 72 hours are for stabilizing, not job hunting. Your only jobs right now are to protect your money, protect your legal position, and protect your head. Do not send a single resume this week. The instinct to prove you are fine by applying to 40 jobs on day one burns energy you will need and usually produces sloppy applications you would not send at your best. Give yourself three days to get your footing, and let the search wait until you have a direction, which is next week's work.

Money first. Calculate your runway as one number: cash you can access divided by your essential monthly expenses, meaning housing, food, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments, and transport. That number is how many months you have before things get tight, and it does more than reassure you: it sets your search tempo. The Runway-to-Tempo Table in Resources maps months of runway to how hard and how wide to search, and to the trigger dates you pre-commit to now while calm. Then file for unemployment benefits in your state as soon as you are able. The U.S. Department of Labor advises contacting your state's unemployment agency as soon as possible after becoming unemployed, and says it generally takes two to three weeks after you file to receive your first check, with some states adding a one-week waiting period (DOL State Unemployment Insurance fact sheet, accessed July 2026). The sooner you file, the sooner that clock starts. Eligibility, amounts, and how severance interacts with benefits vary by state, so check your state's official labor website. On health coverage, COBRA continues your current plan but you usually pay the full premium yourself, while a spouse's plan or the public marketplace may cost far less; losing job-based coverage opens a 60-day Marketplace special enrollment window (HealthCare.gov). Verify the specifics against the plan documents and healthcare.gov.

Legal and logistics next. If you were handed a severance agreement, do not sign it on the spot, no matter how the conversation felt. These agreements are commonly negotiable and you are usually given time to review. In the US, if you are 40 or older and the agreement asks you to waive age-discrimination claims, federal law (the ADEA and OWBPA) sets minimums: at least 21 days to consider if the offer is individual, at least 45 days if it is part of a group layoff, plus 7 days to revoke after signing and written advice to consult an attorney; if any of those is missing, the age-claim waiver is invalid (EEOC guidance on severance-agreement waivers, accessed July 2026). Your document controls the exact dates, so read it in full and consider a one-time consult with an employment attorney before signing. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Separately, before your access is cut, save the personal files you are entitled to, meaning your own contacts, work samples you can share without breaking confidentiality, pay stubs, and your performance reviews. Never take company-owned data, code, or client lists. Set up a personal email if you had been living out of the work one, and change passwords on personal accounts that used your work address.

Then protect your head and your circle. Job loss is a real loss, and treating it like one is not weakness. Tell a small, trusted circle now, meaning a partner, a friend or two, maybe a former manager who is in your corner, and hold off on any public announcement until you have a direction. Put a light daily structure in place immediately: a set wake time, one walk, one meal with another person, and a hard stop in the evening. Structure is what keeps three open days from quietly turning into three lost weeks.

• Calculate your runway: total accessible cash divided by essential monthly expenses, and write the number of months where you will see it every day.
• File for unemployment on your state's official labor website this week. Do not wait for the severance paperwork to be finished.
• Read any severance agreement fully, note the review and revocation windows stated in your document, and do not sign until you have considered a professional review.
• Save the personal files and contacts you are entitled to, set up a personal email if needed, and change passwords on personal accounts tied to your work email. Take nothing that belongs to the company.
• Compare health coverage options (COBRA vs a spouse's plan vs the marketplace) and write down the special enrollment deadline.
• Tell two or three trusted people, and set a wake time and a daily walk for the next three days.

Follow one person through the whole month. Priya is a senior operations manager whose company cut 12 percent of staff in a single Tuesday reduction, so hers is a group layoff. Her instinct is to apply to 25 jobs that night to prove she is fine. Instead, on day 1 she saves her personal contacts, pay stubs, and last two performance reviews to her personal email before her laptop is locked, and she does not sign the severance handed to her. Because she is over 40 and the release asks her to waive age claims, and because it is a group layoff, the document itself gives her at least 45 days to consider, not 21; she notes that date and moves on. Day 2 she totals $18,000 in accessible cash against $4,500 a month in essentials, writes '4 months' on a note stuck to her monitor, and files for unemployment in 20 minutes so the two-to-three-week payment clock starts now. Day 3 she reads the full severance, lists what she wants to negotiate, decides to compare COBRA against her spouse's plan inside the 60-day window, tells her partner and two friends, posts nothing, and sets a wake time and a daily walk. Zero applications sent, and every downstream step now starts from stable ground. You will follow Priya through days 4 to 30 in the lessons that follow.

• Signing the severance agreement the same day because it feels like the offer might disappear. Find the review window stated in your document and use all of it. These agreements almost always give days or weeks to review, and a rushed signature is the one decision this week you cannot take back.
• Waiting to file for unemployment until the severance paperwork is sorted out. File this week. DOL advises filing as soon as possible after you lose the job, and the first check generally takes two to three weeks after you file, with some states adding a one-week wait, so waiting on severance paperwork only delays the money. How severance interacts with benefits varies by state; report it on the state site.
• Posting a public announcement on day one, before you have a direction. Tell two or three trusted people now and save the public post for next week, when you can name exactly what you are looking for. A post with a specific ask generates leads; a post without one generates sympathy.