&gt;&gt; When you see a voicemail (or tweet in case of Twitter) from HR around Friday afternoon&#x2F;evening or early Monday morning.<p>Not quite - layoffs usually happen on Thursdays (so that any problems&#x2F;issues can be sorted out on Friday), last week of the second to last month before the end of the fiscal year (so that severance pay is booked in this fiscal year), but never on a payday week (too much work for payroll).