The Dolan Plan

Both wage earners in your family should have a layoff strategy working before the you-know-what hits the fan. Here's how you can minimize the personal and financial trauma that comes when your job is eliminated. Follow these 7 steps and you'll be at your professional and personal best whether or not your job is in jeopardy. And if you've already lost your job, there's lots of good advice for you in here as well. Who knows, you might make a leap and land on a higher peak!

1. Revive your network. Get a "job lead" file going before you actually need it. Get in touch with old colleagues, bosses and subordinates - even doctors and lawyers, and friends. Get involved with professional associations and attend social functions for people in your field. You don't have to tell people you are job hunting. In fact, don't. Make people in the know aware that you wouldn't turn away from a lead. Start a list of people you know who might have leads for you. If at all possible, develop your list at the first hint of trouble, not when you need a job. And get in touch now. It's going to be a lot easier to ask for help from someone with whom you have stayed in contact - rather than when you needed help.

2. Dust off your resume. Update it and have it ready! Even if you aren't actively looking for a job, it doesn't hurt to put your resume in the hands of headhunters and people in your field.

3. Keep your eyes peeled for warning signals. Has anybody in your company been laid off recently? Don't stop there. Ask around about their "deal." What important things did or didn't they receive? Knowing will give you insight into the kind of layoff package you might have to negotiate.

4. Figure out what you'll do about health insurance. You are perfectly within your rights to have a confidential discussion with someone in your company's benefits office. Ask about the whole benefits package for employees, and then ask how these benefits would be affected by a layoff. If you are covered by COBRA, as most employees in both the private and public sectors are, your employer must provide anyone who is laid off the same level of coverage for 18 months - even if you go to work in another job with an inferior health insurance plan during those 18 months.

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