Jason Vitug, financial wellness expert and author of "Happy Money Happy Life," joined Cheddar News to discuss how to overcome the emotional, financial and stressful toll of workforce reductions.

Closing Bell

Tips to Deal With Uncertainty After Being Laid Off

Job cuts have been grabbing headlines recently with us employers shedding about 100 and 3000 jobs in January, the highest monthly total since the great recession in 2009 according to the employment firm Challenger Gray and Christmas. Well, a lot can take a financial and an emotional toll on workers with people experiencing stress, confusion and even guilt in the days and months that follow. So joining me now with some tips on how to deal the uncertainties of a layoff is Jason Financial Wellness expert and author of Happy Money, Happy Life. Jason, great to have you on and how do we get to that coveted Happy Money, Happy Life scenario. Well, Kristen, thank you so much for having me here. The first step is understanding your mental and emotional state when you hear about your layoff. And I think we do, we focus so much on the financial aspect of it and the toll that takes. But we need to think about how we're doing and how we're feeling because that's gonna help us kind of figure out what's their next steps. Absolutely. So let's go through some top tips if you've been laid off. What are your top tips to those workers? Now, if you've been laid off, the first tip is to assess your financial situation, that is your financial health. You want to make sure that you know, your income and your expenses and income can come in the form of your severance is and your unemployment benefits. And then you want to look at how to cut back on your expenses and reduce, negotiate and eliminate some of these expenses. Okay, great. So if you're worried about getting laid off, do the same step, supplies are these things that you should be thinking about as we do see a rise in layoffs. Yeah, you want to think about the emergency fund. So, emergencies happen, it's not a matter of if or when it happens and the layoff is an emergency. So you want to make sure you put Savings into a 6-9 months because it takes a new work about six months to find a new job. So let's talk more about this emotional component because I know that's so much of what your book focuses on here. And I love the choice of the color orange because of course, that's a happy, optimistic color as well, which I'm sure you were thinking of. But this can be a positive in some ways, right? So how do you potentially look at it as a positive? Well, there are a lot of people who are overworked and overwhelmed and exhaust. And so the one thing about layoff is that you regain back your time. And so that's essential, essentially, you want to be able to do the things that you haven't had the time for. So you can rest, you can relax, you can spend time with family and friends and your passion projects. So you're thinking about the lay off, you're exchanging your time for a paycheck and now you regain back your time. So now you get to do whatever you want with it. Time is money, right? Time is money. What about networking? How important is that? And maybe what emotional state do you start tapping into those network contacts to try to think about a new role? Well, that's the thing. It's really important to check in with yourself to get yourself mentally and emotionally prepared. So you can have these conversations with your family, your friends and your former coworkers. So you really want to take the time. So I always suggest doing some meditation, some yoga, some breath work to allow you the process, the emotional toll of losing your job. Any quick breathwork tips we can try on camera here. I do this sometimes write any, any specific tips. Yeah. Well, I'm a breathwork specialist. So that's a yes yoga certified breathwork specialist. And so one of the key things is you want to breathe in a new job and breathe out the old and then let go, let go. And what that does. It helps your nervous system relax. So you're helping your emotional toll and eventually your mind will get better as well. Look, breath work has helped me a lot, especially in a job where it feels like a new. Sometimes you can't even breathe. Right. That's such a factor. We got to leave it there. Jason, I wish we had more time. We'll be talking off camera. That's Jason Financial Wellness, expert, author of Happy Money. Happy Life. Thank you for joining. Thank you so much.