Questions to Ask When Your Company Is Downsizing
Questions for the all-hands, for your manager and for HR when a company announces reductions, covering whether more rounds are coming, how people were selected, what happens to the remaining work, and the severance, benefits and equity details if you are the one leaving.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
Is this round finished, or are further reductions planned this year?
Companies often cut in waves to keep each headline small. A leader who says the round is complete has made a statement you can hold them to later; one who says nothing can be ruled out has just told you to start preparing.
- 2
What is this meant to achieve, and how will we know it worked?
A cost target, an extension of runway, or a change of strategy each imply a different future. If nobody can name the number or the milestone, the cuts are being made to satisfy a board or an investor rather than a plan.
- 3
Which functions are being reduced, and which are being protected?
The shape matters more than the total. Cuts concentrated in one product line signal that the line is being wound down, and anyone working near it should be reading that signal rather than the headcount number.
- 4
How were people selected?
Ask whether it was role elimination, performance ratings, tenure, or location. The answer affects how you read the outcome, how you would describe it to a future employer, and whether the process looks like it was applied consistently.
- 5
What happens to the work the people who left were doing?
The honest answers are that it stops, it gets automated, or whoever is left absorbs it. The third answer without a matching decision about what to drop is how the people who survived a downsizing burn out within six months.
- 6
Has my role changed, and who do I report to now?
Reorganizations bury reporting changes inside an org chart slide. Ask your manager directly and get it confirmed in writing, because an unclear reporting line during a downsizing is how someone arrives at the next review with no advocate.
- 7
What are the two things you most need from me this quarter?
This does two jobs at once. It gives you priorities in a period when priorities are unstable, and it puts your manager on record about where your value sits at exactly the moment that record matters.
- 8
Is hiring frozen, and does the freeze include backfills and contractors?
A freeze that covers backfills means the team keeps shrinking through attrition with no further announcement. Contractor budgets are usually cut first and quietly, which changes what your team can realistically deliver.
- 9
What is happening to the budgets I depend on: tools, travel, training?
These are cut before headcount and are rarely announced. Knowing now lets you renew a license or finish a certification while it is still reimbursable, rather than discovering the change when the expense is rejected.
- 10
Are compensation reviews, raises and bonuses going ahead?
Ask about the specific cycle and its date rather than about the policy. Merit budgets are commonly trimmed or skipped during a downsizing, and it is better to hear that now than to plan a year around a raise that is not coming.
- 11
Are promotions still possible this cycle?
Some organizations pause promotions while reducing headcount, and others use them deliberately to hold on to people they cannot afford to lose. The answer tells you whether staying is a career move or a holding pattern.
- 12
What is the company saying publicly, and what can I say?
Clients, candidates and your own network will ask you within days. Getting the agreed wording avoids an awkward misstep, and it also shows you what leadership is prepared to admit out loud, which is worth knowing.
- 13
How is this being communicated to customers?
If you face customers, you need this before they call you. A company with no customer message has not finished thinking, and you will end up improvising an answer that someone else will later have to correct.
- 14
If I am selected, what is the severance and how is it calculated?
Ask for the formula in weeks per year of service, the minimum, and whether the amount is set by policy or left to discretion. Discretionary severance is more open to negotiation than a published formula, and knowing which it is shapes the conversation.
- 15
What happens to my health coverage, and on exactly what date does it end?
Coverage sometimes ends on the last day worked and sometimes at the end of that month, and the difference decides whether a scheduled appointment or procedure is covered. Ask for the date and the monthly cost of continuing.
- 16
What happens to my unvested equity, and how long do I have to exercise?
The default is that unvested shares are forfeited on the termination date. Ask about the exercise window on vested options as well, since a short post-departure window can force a decision and a tax bill you were not planning for.
- 17
What is my last working day compared with my last paid day?
These are frequently different, and the gap can affect vesting dates, bonus eligibility, benefits and the dates you put on an application. Ask for both in writing rather than accepting a single date in conversation.
- 18
How long do I have to review the agreement before signing?
Severance agreements normally ask you to release claims in exchange for the payment, and in some situations the law provides a set period to consider it and a window to revoke afterward. Nothing on the paper requires you to sign it in the room.
- 19
Will you act as a reference, and would you put that in writing?
Ask your direct manager while the relationship is warm and the details are fresh in their mind. Many companies restrict official references to dates and job title, so a named individual willing to speak personally is worth much more.
- 20
Knowing what you know, would you stay?
Ask this of a manager or a trusted colleague privately rather than in a group. The pause before the answer usually tells you more than the answer does, and it is the closest thing to inside information anyone can give you honestly.
Working through a downsizing
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
At the announcement
At the announcement
Write down what was actually said
Note the numbers, the dates and the specific commitments made out loud, along with who made them. Details get restated over the following weeks, and having the original wording makes it much easier to ask a fair follow-up question rather than an accusatory one.
Ask about the shape, not the size
Which teams, which locations, which layers of management. A reduction spread evenly across the company reads as a cost exercise. One concentrated in a product, a region or a middle layer is a strategy decision, and it tells you where the organization is heading.
Separate what you can verify from what you are told
Hiring pages, product roadmaps, renewal dates and the pace of decision making are all observable. If the public message and the observable behavior disagree, the behavior is the more reliable of the two.
If you stay
If you stay
- Get your new scope and reporting line confirmed in writing, however informal the change felt.
- Ask explicitly what should be dropped now that fewer people are doing the work, and get that agreed rather than assumed.
- Keep a running record of what you delivered and when. Institutional memory is the first thing lost when teams shrink.
- Update your own materials quietly, not because you plan to leave, but because the next round is easier if you are ready.
- Watch for the second wave signals: renewed hiring freezes, delayed reviews, a change of auditor or a change of finance leadership.
If you are selected
If you are selected
- Do not sign anything in the meeting. Ask for the agreement in writing and for the review period.
- Ask for the severance figure, the payment schedule, the benefits end date, the equity treatment and the reference policy, all in one written summary.
- Check whether accrued vacation, a bonus already earned, or a commission already booked are being paid, since these are often missed.
- Read any non-compete, non-solicit or non-disparagement wording carefully, and have an employment attorney look at it if the amount is significant.
- Ask about the outplacement support, the return of equipment, and how long you keep access to your files and contacts.
- Ask colleagues for written recommendations in the first week, while everyone still remembers the work.