Warm holiday “Season’s greetings” feel far less cheery when the season is overshadowed by widespread layoffs. According to analysis from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, November marked the eighth month this year that saw year-over-year increases in job cuts. To make the gloomy labor picture even worse, November hiring dropped 35% compared to 2024 levels, bringing the year-to-date hiring total to its lowest mark since 2010.
Headlines about today’s volatile labor market are already deeply unnerving—and that anxiety spikes dramatically when layoffs reach your own workplace. Advance preparation, however, can cut through much of that uncertainty, and one group of people understands this better than most.
A page out of the prepper book
The term “prepper” often calls to mind images of reality programming like Doomsday Preppers, where people stockpile massive caches of food, water, weapons, and other supplies in preparation for full apocalyptic events. In reality, though, most preppers are simply ordinary people who prefer to have basic essentials and a solid contingency plan ready for any unexpected crisis.
In fact, the most recent National Preparedness Report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) found that more than half of U.S. adults (55%) have completed at least three of the 12 core recommended preparedness steps, such as drafting an emergency plan, gathering essential supplies, and securing critical personal documents.
This mindset is not all that different from preparing for a potential layoff, explains organizational psychologist Melissa Doman. “Going through an unexpected layoff is a form of temporary personal ‘doomsday’ for many people,” she says. “It hits without warning, it’s completely out of your control, and there’s no way to tell how long the period of uncertainty will last.”
