Jannese Torres

Getting laid off is brutal.

It's the floor dropping out from under you.

In that instant, Melody Wilding's brain snapped into survival mode.

We're going to hear more from Melody Wilding later in the episode.

But I wanted to start here because even if you haven't been laid off, maybe you've imagined this kind of scenario, the blindsiding, the sudden freefall.

I think it's a fear a lot of people are carrying right now.

Because it's hard to avoid the headlines.

Companies across tech, retail, and media, from Amazon and Nike to Pinterest and UPS, have already announced job cuts this year.

Just in January, more than 108,000 layoffs were announced.

And when companies explain those cuts, you tend to hear the same words on repeat.

AI, inflation, quote-unquote restructuring.

Hearing all that, it's easy for our brains to spiral into what-ifs.

Like, what if my job is the next to go?

What if this paycheck is my last?

I am Rima Grace, and welcome to This is Uncomfortable, the weekly show from Marketplace about life and how money messes with it.

This week, we're asking, how do we cope with layoff anxiety?

This is going to be something of a how-to episode.

We're going to get advice from three different experts, a psychologist, a career coach, and a financial educator.

I want to find out what this kind of fear does to our brains, how it can mess with our work, and how to get our finances in order to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

That's Ellen Hendrickson.