Every layoff deadline. One guide.
A layoff hands you a dozen clocks that all start at once. The Layoff Guide is a 33-page field guide that lays out every deadline that touches your money, in the order they arrive, with timed checkpoints and the decision math. Read it once, fill in your dates, and nothing expensive slips past you.
Instant download. Includes The First 72 Hours as a free bonus. Full refund within 14 days if it is not useful.
After a layoff, the deadlines start immediately.
Most people miss them.
Not because they're careless, but because the system is designed to be missed. Different deadlines, different agencies, different rules by state, different windows by age and equity status, scattered across legal, tax, health, and retirement domains. There is no single source for any of this. There is no one place that tracks all of it for you. Until now.
- 60 DAYSCOBRA election deadline from coverage end
- 21 / 45 DAYSOWBPA review window (Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, applies if 40+)
- 90 DAYSISO exercise window post-termination
- SEPT 15Q3 estimated tax payment for lump-sum severance
- WEEKLYState unemployment certifications
How it works
Get the guide.
One payment, instant download. Thirty-three pages covering the twelve deadline events that decide what happens to your money after a layoff, in the order they arrive. The First 72 Hours rapid-response guide comes with it, free.
Fill in your dates.
Every deadline counts from a date you already know, usually your last day of work. The Your Dates worksheet turns the guide into your personal calendar in about ten minutes. Want it computed for you? The free online calendar does the date math from four inputs.
Work the checkpoints.
Sixty timed checkpoints across the twelve events tell you what to do and when, from day one through December 31. Put them in your phone calendar or check them off on paper. That is the reminder system, and it never expires.
Every deadline on this calendar carries a decision. Most people make that decision without the math.
Search results and AI chats answer one question at a time, in whatever order you think to ask. The guide is built the other way around.
Built in the order the deadlines actually arrive.
The guide opens with a Deadline Map of all twelve events in sequence, from filing unemployment on day one to the December 31 withholding review. You always know what is next, not just what exists.
Every event explains when its clock really starts.
The COBRA clock starts on the later of two dates. The severance review clock starts when the agreement is presented. The equity clock is set by your plan document, not the law. Getting the start date wrong is how people miss windows they knew about.
The expensive choices, mapped side by side.
COBRA versus Marketplace versus your spouse's plan. The four 401(k) options. Exercise versus lapse. Each spread puts the trade-offs in one box with the numbers that drive them, so you decide on purpose.
A reminder system that works on paper.
Every event ends with dated checkboxes: what to do on day 1, week 3, day 55. Load them into your phone calendar once and the guide keeps tapping your shoulder for a year.
Each event names the error that costs people the most.
Waiving COBRA the day the notice arrives. Taking a 401(k) check made out to you. Filing unemployment a week late. Twelve mistakes, each flagged before you can make it.
Nothing to take on faith.
Each spread lists its sources: DOL, EEOC, IRS, CMS, and the statutes themselves. Where your state or your plan document sets the number, the guide says so and points you to it.
Thirty-three pages. Nothing padded.
Twelve deadline events, each as a two-page spread, wrapped in the tools that turn reading into a plan.
The Deadline Map
All twelve events on one page, in the order they usually arrive, so you can see the whole year at a glance.
The Your Dates worksheet
Write in your last day of work and follow each formula. Ten minutes later you hold your complete personal deadline calendar.
Twelve two-page event spreads
Unemployment filing and certifications, severance review and revocation, COBRA election and first premium, the Marketplace window, FSA money, your equity window, the 401(k) decision, estimated taxes, and the year-end review.
When each clock really starts
Every spread opens with the clock band: the exact trigger that starts the window and how long you have. This is the fine print that costs people money.
Decision boxes
The high-dollar choices mapped side by side: COBRA vs Marketplace vs spouse's plan, the four 401(k) options, exercise vs lapse, and what is negotiable in a severance agreement.
60 timed checkpoints
Dated checkboxes on every event, from day 1 to December 31. Your reminder system, on paper or in your phone calendar.
The Checkpoint Tracker
Every checkpoint from all twelve events collected onto two pages, so you can run the whole year from one spread.
Glossary and sources
Eighteen plain-language definitions and the full source list: DOL, EEOC, IRS, CMS, and the statutes, so you can verify anything.
Bonus: The First 72 Hours
Our 18-page rapid-response guide for the first three days: save your records, read the severance agreement, file for unemployment, stabilize. Included free with The Layoff Guide.
Simple pricing. One payment.
No subscriptions. No upsells inside. Pay once, download, done.
- ✓18-page rapid-response guide for the first three days
- ✓Save your records before access is cut
- ✓The severance agreement, clause by clause
- ✓COBRA vs Marketplace worked out in dollars
- ✓Fill-in worksheets: severance value, runway, key dates
- ✓The complete 33-page deadline system
- ✓All twelve deadline events as two-page spreads
- ✓60 timed checkpoints and the Checkpoint Tracker
- ✓Decision boxes for the high-dollar choices
- ✓The Your Dates worksheet and Deadline Map
- ✓Glossary and full federal source list
- ✓The First 72 Hours included free
If it is not useful, email billing@layoffhq.com within 14 days for a full refund. Refund policy →
Why a guide instead of a service?
Because the deadlines are knowable and yours to run. Every window in a layoff counts from a date you already have, usually your last day of work. You do not need a subscription watching you; you need the complete list, the fine print on when each clock starts, and a checkpoint system you control. That is what this is. Buy it once, and it works whether your transition takes two months or fourteen.
What we are. What we aren't.
What Layoff HQ is
- ●A field guide to every deadline and decision after a U.S. layoff
- ●A way to see the math on COBRA, equity, and tax decisions in dollars
- ●A checkpoint system you run yourself, on paper or in your calendar
- ●Built for the moment after a layoff, when there are too many decisions and not enough calm
What Layoff HQ is not
- ○A law firm. We don't give legal advice. We tell you when to call one.
- ○A financial advisor. We don't recommend investments. We model trade-offs.
- ○A tax preparer. We don't file your taxes. We tell you what's coming.
- ○A career coach or job search service. We track the transition; you run the search.
Questions people ask before buying
Not ready to buy? Start with the free Decision Calendar.
Four inputs, and we build you a free calendar of these same twelve deadlines anchored to your actual dates. No credit card. If it proves useful, the full guide is here when you want the depth.