What journalists should know when a layoff hits
Practical advice on severance, legal rights and protecting your work
A version of this article was originally published March 10, 2020. We are republishing it in light of the recent layoffs at The Washington Post.
Losing a job is not a pleasant experience, but stay in journalism long enough and there’s a pretty good chance it’ll happen to you. Maybe even more than once.
My last layoff, from a news-adjacent tech startup, came via Google Hangouts. My access to everything was turned off at the beginning of the call and I had to dial in from my personal account to finish getting laid off. By this point, I had seen several colleagues laid off, the company’s lone human resources person leave and a new chief revenue officer come in.
I was prepared, and it made a difference.
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