How to Explain a Layoff in an Interview
The layoff isn’t the problem, the over-explaining is. Here’s how to explain a layoff in an interview in two calm sentences, plus scripts for the hard cases and the mistakes to avoid.
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Check Your Moonlighting Clause Before You Start Anything
Can your employer stop you from freelancing? Often, partly, yes. Your moonlighting clause and three others decide what’s safe. Here’s how to read them before your first client, without a lawyer.
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Income Streams You Can Start While Still Employed (Without Getting Fired)
The safest side income doesn’t compete with your employer, doesn’t use their time or tools, and doesn’t cost you sleep. Here’s how to rank the options by what they pay per hour of health spent.
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Turning Your Corporate Skill Into a $500/Month Side Practice
Your first outside dollar doesn’t need a new skill, just the one your employer already bills for. Here’s how to freelance with a full-time job and add $500 a month, honestly, without the hustle-culture burnout.
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Filing for Unemployment Without Shame (or Mistakes)
You paid into unemployment insurance for years, so using it isn’t charity. File the week you’re laid off, dodge the 6 mistakes that cost people money, and elect tax withholding so April isn’t a second layoff.
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The State Trooper In The Lobby
A uniformed state trooper stood in our lobby on layoff mornings. He wasn’t there because anyone was dangerous. He was there because the company had already done the math, and budgeted for it.
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At-Will Employment: What They Can Actually Do to You
What does at-will employment mean? Either side can end the job at any time, for any reason but an illegal one. Here’s the honest list of what it lets them do, and doesn’t.
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Document Everything: The Paper Trail That Protects You
Keep a dated, factual record of significant work events, off company systems. Here’s how to document workplace issues the right way, and the lines that get you in trouble.
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HR Is Not Your Friend (What HR Is Actually For)
Is HR on your side? Sometimes. HR’s real job is protecting the company from risk. Here’s what to use HR for, where your interests diverge, and how to cover yourself.
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Hiring Freezes, Budget ‘Resets,’ and Other Corporate Euphemisms Decoded
A hiring freeze rarely means “we’re pausing.” It’s the cheapest cost-cutting lever, and where it sits on the escalation ladder tells you how far the decision has already gone.
