What HR Won't Tell You About Your Layoff — Free Guide by Embodied Work

Free guide · Embodied Work

What HR Won't Tell You About Your Layoff

A plain-language guide from someone who has been on both sides of the table.

I spent over a decade in HR. I have delivered layoff notices. I know exactly what happens in that room and why they stick to a script.

Then I got laid off.

Everything I thought I understood hit me completely differently when it was happening to me. This guide is what I wish someone had handed me — before the meeting, during it, and in the days after. Concrete steps. No corporate softening. No empty reassurance.

What's inside

  • Warning signs you're on the way out — and what to do before it happens
  • Exactly what to do and say in the meeting
  • Your actual rights — Canada and US, plain language
  • How to calculate whether your severance offer is fair
  • How to negotiate — including the email I sent to get an extra month's pay
  • The emotional reality nobody talks about
  • Five worksheets: budget calculator, documentation tracker, negotiation prep, week-by-week action plan, and email templates you can use today

If this guide helps and you want to go further — Now What? is a private membership community for mid-career women navigating exactly this. Practical tools. Real peer support. No toxic positivity.

Founding membership closes at 20 members. $27/month, locked in permanently. nowwhat.embodiedwork.ca