What to Do if Santa Delivers a Pink Slip --- Companies often cut jobs around the holidays, so now is the time to plan

“Naughty or nice, you could find a pink slip in your stocking this season.

 

Sorry to be a downer, but the reality is December and January are typically the months when companies cut the most jobs. It's less about being Scroogey than resetting expenses as the calendar flips. Still, losing a job around the holidays feels especially cold, and this has been a bad year for layoffs.

 

U.S. businesses have eliminated nearly 1.2 million positions through November, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which advises companies on staff reductions and helps departing employees find new work. Challenger's 2025 layoff tally is 54% higher than in the first 11 months of last year. It's a level previously seen during recessions.

 

So now is a good time to be clear-eyed about possible warning signs and consider what you would do if "get a new job" were thrust onto your list of New Year's resolutions. Here are some things to keep in mind.

 

Keep emotions in check

 

If you were put on a performance-improvement plan or didn't get the usual year-end bonus, you probably know to be on notice.

 

Ditto if your company is struggling financially or it takes less manpower for your department to complete its tasks with the help of automation and artificial intelligence.

 

Some signals are obvious. What to do isn't always apparent.

 

Amanda Schmidt saw the writing on the wall a few months before her early-December layoff from a marketing job at a tech company. Her team had been refining an AI tool, set to launch in January, which felt suspiciously like training a replacement.

 

There were other clues, too. She saw layoffs sweep through the tech sector and noted her company's return-to-office push, which can be a headcount-reduction tactic. After winning an internal award in the second quarter of the year, she suddenly found herself sidelined and micromanaged.

 

Though frustrated, she dismissed any thought of quitting.

 

"That's an emotional decision," she says. "You're leaving a lot on the table and burning bridges in the process."

 

Businesses sometimes make working conditions unpleasant in the run-up to layoffs, hoping employees will leave on their own and forfeit severance packages. Schmidt knew better. She might have jumped with another offer in hand but, without one, she waited for the ax to fall and got three months' severance.

 

Lingering on the chopping block is no fun. But in a tepid labor market, at a time of year when hiring slows anyway, job hugging may be the smart play. Schmidt adds that hanging on to the end yielded a professional-development stipend as part of her exit package, which she used to enroll in an AI-certificate course.

 

Trust your gut

 

Other layoff warnings are easy to miss unless you pay attention and ask questions.

 

Megan Struthers says the hairs on the back of her neck stood up when her six-year anniversary at a recruiting firm passed without fanfare. Such milestones were previously marked by team-wide emails encouraging co-workers to congratulate her.

 

The oversight was a small thing with plausible explanations. Maybe work anniversaries aren't such a big deal between the five- and 10-year posts. Perhaps her manager didn't want to fill Struthers's inbox while she was on maternity leave.

 

Instead of wondering, she asked around.

 

"I had conversations with some of my friends internally, and they agreed the vibes were off," she says.

 

Her position was eliminated this month amid a widespread hiring slowdown that reduces demand for recruiters.

 

Struthers's advice: Don't be paranoid, but do be attentive and proactive. A few months before her layoff, she wrote in a notebook all of the personal-account information she had stored on her work laptop.

 

Many of us use company-issued devices to pay the mortgage and other bills. How annoying would it be to lose a job, and computer access, then have to reset a slew of usernames and passwords on top of everything? Work-issued phones can be an even bigger hassle, since personal financial accounts often use that number for two-factor authentication.

 

She also kept a digital folder, labeled "Yay," where she recorded praise from clients and goals she surpassed. This makes writing her resume easier and provides a confidence boost.

 

Make a plan

 

One key to bracing for a potential layoff is overcoming the paralysis that tends to grip us when we sense trouble.

 

"It's like stepping on the bathroom scale and knowing you need to work out, but putting off doing anything for another six months," says Nadia Vanderhall, a financial planner who draws on her own experience with a layoff as she advises clients.

 

Yes, it's ideal to keep at least three months' of expenses in an emergency fund, but don't abandon saving altogether if that seems like an intimidating target. Start with $500, Vanderhall says. She notes unemployment benefits can take a few weeks to kick in, and even modest savings can help bridge the gap.

 

She also recommends looking into your creditors' hardship policies. Would you qualify for forbearance on your car payment or student loans if you got laid off? Better to know in advance.

 

Severance agreements are sometimes negotiable, she adds, so consider what your priorities would be. For example, if your partner has a stable job but you carry the household's health insurance, perhaps you'd be willing to take a smaller cash payout in exchange for extended Cobra eligibility. It also is often a good idea to hire a lawyer to review an agreement to make sure it guarantees you the most benefits and leaves you eligible for things like unemployment.

 

Admittedly, all this planning can feel like doomsaying. But going through the uncomfortable exercise of gaming out a potential layoff can make things a little less painful if you get hit with the real thing.” [1]

 

1. On the Clock: What to Do if Santa Delivers a Pink Slip --- Companies often cut jobs around the holidays, so now is the time to plan. Borchers, Callum.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 22 Dec 2025: A11.