4. Pack a Career Go Bag

The cruellest thing about a layoff isn't the decision. It's the speed.In some markets, one click and your access is gone. Email, files, contacts, the lot, often cut before the meeting that tells you has even finished. In some companies, you don't get to go back to your desk. You don't get to gather your things. The company has a button. You have lead time, and only if you use it.I had a month or more to do this as I left my role, and I still had a lot to do - especially at a company where benefits are set up using your company email address. So my advice is to pack a go bag in advance. The way you'd keep a bag by the door if you lived somewhere that floods.If you want reassurance, almost none of this is doom prep. It's just career hygiene you should be doing anyway.Even if the email never comes, you come out ahead.Get your stuff out.This is the urgent bit, and it needs a clear line drawn through it, because getting it wrong can cost you the reference, the settlement, and occasionally…