<prompt> Human: Usually I just lurk but I couldnt seem to find the answers I was looking for in previous posts. sorry for the all of text.Yesterday, my SO was informed in a group meeting that the company was sold, and their branch was being terminated, they are being laid off. They have until may 31st. Im worried, but relieved we have 5 weeks and we have hit the ground running, contacting our network, updating resumes, reviewing our expenses and checking our savings. They were also told that it was confidential, would be announced but until the announcement they cant talk about it. So I apologize I cant tell you what state we are in, just we are in the U.S Georgia. SO meets with HR one on one today, and I gave him a list of questions to ask that I had found after doing research.I want to know:- 1 If theres any questions that people forget to ask that we should ask and- 2 Things we should be doing now that people forget.We have no children, we are renters and if push comes to shove my parents own their house we could live with them. id rather not but I would. We have some savings but not a lot because we were trying to build them up. So far he does get severance but only if he stays on until may 31st. is that common?___Edits:- Severance is equal to 1 month for every year worked _read: not much for living off of..._. Severance is forfeited if I leave before close date which is NOT 100 defined but estimated to be 531. Also leaving early forfeits a Pro-Rated Bonus as well. Altogether leaving early would mean losing out on 9,000 pre-tax money as well as 1 month covered COBRA...which for me is 1,200. - A- __Would also like to know about Lay-off letters. They claim they cant get it to me early because HR hasnt met with the Payroll people yet Thursday and they dont have a definitive close date.__ - A- Company is offering Outplacement services in office next week. They have also offered to review resumes at no cost to us, how generous 3232;_3232; and finally they have no issue with us interviewing during the working day, so long as we coordinate with management. ___TL;DR-my SO got laid off, has until may 31st what should we do?- Edited for formatting SO here to referred to as A- Note: SO aka A will be hanging around to answer any other questions or details that need to be added. Assistant: Do not wait. Do not let severance hold you back. If he gets a job offer than take it even if you lose a few bucks in severance. You need to be worried about long term, not short.Stop spending now. No eating out, no toys, nothing. Conserve cash now.Severance is not guaranteed in 99 of the time. Plan on nothing and be happy with what is offered.HRs job is to screw you. They work for the companies best interest, not yours. They are not your friends.Human: thank you. if we get it in writing its still not guaranteed? I definitely am going to plan on nothing though based on what you said. our anniversary is in 2 weeks and we were planning on a staycation but we canceled that. im trying to cut more things. hopefully I will be able to. a couple of weeks ago we tried to cancel our cable, we had it bundled with our internet with att. when I called they told me there was a ETFthat would only be waived if we were moving and canceled everything , and when I threw a fit they forwarded me to a disconnected extension. so I reduced our cable to the bare minimum package of cable. is there any way to get out of this and still be able to cancel?  <response>: Just call and calmly say youd like to cancel your service. Say cancel my service a few times to the first guy you talk to. Theyll transfer you again. The customer retention specialist can actually change these fees for you. Say you want to cancel everything because you cant afford it. They will try to hardball with you. Say you could probably afford just the internet service, but not the cable service. 