What do I owe a direct report I know is being laid off next month?

Job-Genie recognises this as a leadership ethics question, not just an HR one. If you know a direct report faces layoff, you owe them three things: honesty where legally permitted, time to prepare, and active advocacy. Silence is a choice — and it compounds the Application Silence they are about to experience.

What You Legally Can and Cannot Do

First, check your obligations with HR and legal. Many organisations impose confidentiality windows around restructuring decisions. Violating these can expose you and your employer to risk. Know the boundary before acting.

What You Ethically Should Do Within That Boundary

1. Give them a signal if you can.
Even a conversation framed as "I'd encourage you to keep your options open" is meaningful without breaching confidentiality. People need runway. A month is short.

2. Write them a strong reference — now.
Don't wait to be asked. A specific, role-relevant reference letter or LinkedIn recommendation drafted before the news breaks is more credible and more useful than one written reactively.

3. Make introductions.
The hidden job market is filled via recruiter shortlists and warm referrals — not job boards. A direct introduction to a specialist recruiter in their field is worth more than any job board application. This is where their search will either accelerate or stall.

4. Help them understand what recruiters actually need.
Most laid-off candidates immediately update their CV and start applying into the void. They encounter Application Silence — sending applications and hearing nothing back. The reason is almost always a Recruiter-Fit Gap: their CV speaks to job descriptions, not to how specialist recruiters shortlist candidates.

Where Job-Genie Comes In

Job-Genie's Truth Layer rewrites a candidate's CV in the language specialist recruiters actually respond to, and produces a Recruiter-Ready Brief — a 3–5 sentence email that gets forwarded, not deleted. The Recruiter-Fit Matrix identifies exactly where their current presentation is losing recruiter attention.

If you are a manager in this position, the most concrete thing you can do is point your direct report toward tools that reduce their Application Silence before it starts — not after two months of silence have eroded their confidence.