Hey friend,

It's 3:47 AM. Your phone buzzes. Still half-asleep, you reach for it and see a message from your work email: "Regarding your employment status." Your stomach drops. You open it with shaking hands. By 3:50 AM, you're laid off. By 4:00 AM, you're completely locked out of everything.

Amazon workers experienced this nightmare in late October 2025 when layoff notifications arrived at 3 AM, instructing employees to "check personal/work email, including spam, for a message on your role" before coming to the office (Business Today, October 31, 2025). The message came via text at 3 AM, with one Reddit user joking that "3 am is nasty work" (Business Today, October 31, 2025).

This isn't just an Amazon story. It's becoming the new normal across industries, from tech giants to federal agencies. Amazon confirmed 14,000 corporate job cuts on October 28, 2025, with employees receiving notifications via email Tuesday morning (CNBC, October 28, 2025). And if you're reading this at your desk right now, thinking "that won't happen to me"—that's exactly what they all thought too.

An Amazon employee shared their experience on Reddit after receiving the layoff notification (GeekWire, October 28, 2025). They'd thought they were a top performer—their last performance review rated them "raising the bar." They'd carefully maintained their accomplishments in a Quip file—years of project wins, performance highlights, and career documentation all stored in the company system.

"I used to keep all my accolades and praise in a quip file along with all my 2×2 write ups and MBR/QBR write ups cataloging my wins. When I found out I got laid off my head was spinning so I went outside for a walk, by the time I returned I was locked out of my laptop and no longer had access to anything," they wrote (GeekWire, October 28, 2025).

Their advice to others? "One thing I would recommend for everyone is to back up your personal files onto your personal laptop" (GeekWire, October 28, 2025).

The pattern repeats across industries. A Housing and Urban Development Department worker who received a layoff notice in October 2025 said he had "never gone through anything as traumatizing as what I am now experiencing" including his combat service (Government Executive, October 2025). Another federal employee said she would not be able to afford surgery related to a liver transplant if their layoff took effect (Government Executive, October 2025).

What workers discovered they'd lost:

✔️ Performance reviews proving their value
✔️ Project portfolios and work samples
✔️ Training certificates and completion records
✔️ Internal communications documenting achievements
✔️ Contact information for colleagues and references
✔️ Everything needed to prove their worth to the next employer

The February 2025 layoff wave set records: 172,017 job cuts announced in a single month—a 245% increase from January (CNBC, March 7, 2025). And in nearly every case, the story was the same: immediate lockout, no warning, no chance to save critical career documentation.

The numbers tell a brutal story:

More than 4,000 federal employees received layoff notices in October 2025, with widespread reduction-in-force notices sent across multiple agencies (Federal News Network, October 2025). A federal judge ruled these layoffs were "both illegal and in excess of authority," yet workers had already been locked out and lost access to their career documentation (Government Executive, October 2025).

In one documented case from October 2025, a US firm's COO scheduled a "mandatory meeting" for all India employees at 11 AM (GoodReturns, October 2025). The COO joined at 11:01 AM, disabled everyone's cameras and microphones, and casually announced that "the majority of their Indian workforce" was being let go due to "internal organizational restructuring"—not performance issues (GoodReturns, October 2025).

The meeting ended at 11:04 AM—exactly three minutes. No questions were taken. Layoff emails were already waiting in employee inboxes. Last working day: October 1st, the same day as the announcement (GoodReturns, October 2025).

According to employment attorneys, the critical window is measured in minutes, not days. Workers must forward important documents to personal email addresses immediately—before the lockout happens (CNBC, March 7, 2025). Once access is revoked, getting it back is nearly impossible.

Beyond security concerns, immediate lockouts serve multiple purposes:

If you're reading this and still employed, do this RIGHT NOW:

Time commitment: 30 minutes this week

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"The most powerful thing you can do in uncertain times isn't to control what happens to you—it's to control what you keep. Your accomplishments are yours. Your skills are yours. Your story is yours. Don't let anyone else hold the only copy. Document your wins. Save your proof. Own your narrative. Because the only career anyone can take from you is the one you never documented in the first place."

I know it feels like preparing for the worst. But here's the thing: layoff announcements in February 2025 reached levels not seen since 2020, with 172,017 job cuts announced—the highest monthly total since July 2020 (CNBC, March 7, 2025). Companies increasingly moved to immediate lockout procedures throughout 2025.

The 30 minutes you spend backing up your career documentation isn't paranoia—it's insurance. The same way you buckle your seatbelt every time you drive, even though you don't expect to crash.

Because when that 3 AM text arrives—and I hope it never does—you won't have 30 minutes. You won't have 30 seconds. You'll have zero access, zero leverage, and zero documentation of everything you've accomplished.

Unless you prepare today.

Your career is too important to leave in someone else's hands. Even if those hands belong to your current employer.

Take the next 30 minutes. Back up your proof. Protect your future.

You've got this.

Win
Fellow layoff survivor, professional backup evangelist
Let Go Weekly

P.S. — If you've already experienced immediate lockout and lost critical career documentation, you're not alone. Reply to this email with your story. I'm collecting them for a future deep-dive on what companies owe employees and what we can do about this trend.

Let Go Weekly is created by someone who learned these lessons the hard way. I'm now running a successful agency and building multiple income streams—all because I documented my value before someone else could erase it.

Know someone facing layoffs? Forward this email. Better to be over-prepared than under-protected.