Circulating a Tech Layoff Spreadsheet? Here’s How to Protect Your Privacy

Summary: If you’re going to start a spreadsheet, here’s a privacy-conscious template. If you’re going to share your email address in a publicly-circulated spreadsheet, use (or create) a secondary one so you don’t compromise your go-to.

If you’ve lost your job due to layoffs, you might combine forces with a group of your former coworkers to jointly and publicly circulate your information. Why not publish your contact details online to generate free publicity and have more interview opportunities pop up right in your inbox?

Whether you’re helping to create, join, or circulate a spreadsheet that publicizes a group of job-seekers, read on to understand:

• What does a privacy-conscious spreadsheet template look like?
• What contact information should you share — and withhold — when joining an existing sheet?
• What could happen if you share too much? Where is your info headed?
• How can you share your spreadsheet most effectively?

Let’s dig in to some important privacy implications of your decisions.

Creating a Layoff Spreadsheet? Here’s Your Free, Privacy-Conscious Template

The only way to guarantee that nobody mis-uses your personal information is to keep it from bad actors in the first place. As you create a spreadsheet for your downsized team, remember that anything you share online will become permanently public. Our free template provides some good guidelines:

1. Access our template
2. Make your own copy
3. Only give edit access to trusted moderators

Joining A Layoff Spreadsheet? Withhold Some Details

The above template should serve as a guide for information that is fair game to share. The following are personal details to deliberately keep absent:

1. Don’t share your real email. Assume that spammers will get their hands on the email address you share in the spreadsheet. We suggest setting up a new, single-use email address just for this job search. It’s the only way to prevent “contaminating” a separate email address that you plan to use going forward.
2. Don’t share your cell phone number. The Reply All podcast’s “Snapchat Thief” episode offers a fascinating primer on the weird and nefarious things people do with cell phone numbers.
3. Don’t share your home address, birthday, or other info that isn’t strictly needed for your search. Less is more.

Where Does Your Contact Info Go Once It’s Online?

You may think that once you enter information into a spreadsheet, you can easily take it down any time. Perhaps you can. But not always. And people tend to leave these sheets up indefinitely.

Anyone remember the SoundCloud Employee Spreadsheet that started in 2017? Almost 3 years later, “Hire a SoundClouder” is still online!

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Even if, until a few months ago, you could find a way to take down your information, a recent spate of websites launched in response to the spike in layoffs. Most of these new sites simply link to layoff spreadsheets, hoping to shed light on affected job-seekers while leaving the spreadsheet data in the hands of whoever created the sheet in the first place.

Other sites do things differently, first by scanning the market for public-facing spreadsheets, and then by ingesting and repackaging your data into their own public-facing databases, whether or not you know that they have taken control of your data.

Some job-seekers appreciate this as they are publishing to get as much exposure as possible. However, we have heard from other job-seekers who have been surprised or frustrated that they need to take extra steps to manage their personal information in the middle of a stressful job search. How can you request your info be removed if you don’t even know which sites or databases have re-posted your info? And when you never requested your info get posted there in the first place?

We can see arguments on both sides. Given our mission of helping people affected by layoffs, we just want you to be aware of how your info will spread — out of your control — if you choose to post it to one of these public post-layoff spreadsheets, and you include personal information (like your primary email).

How to Share Your Job-Seeker Info Effectively

Now that we’ve figured out how to decide what to share, let’s explore how you market your search like a pro:

1. Use a custom short link for your spreadsheet. Short links are free to create on sites like bit.ly, and let you track clicks over time. Speaking of clicks, you can customize your link with your group’s name (e.g. bit.ly/Ex-{Company}) to try to generate more.
2. Launch your job search on social media and make it easy for your network to help you. Share your story candidly and give your network context, optimism, and positivity. What did you love about your last experience, and what are you hoping to pursue next? How specific can you get?
3. Leverage platforms willing to share with your target market. You’re offering up your personal information with the hopes that the right people will reach out. Some are in your personal network, but many are not. If your group layoff includes SF tech talent, submit your spreadsheet for inclusion in Layoff-Aid’s Defenders of the Downsized newsletter, for free. We are here to help groups follow these guidelines, and then share your privacy-conscious sheet with a targeted audience of Bay Area founders, executives, and investors.

Sharing your information in a publicly-available spreadsheet can get your details in front of some great people. We’re big believers in publicity driving the support of our networks. For groups or individuals that choose to job search publicly, we hope this guide helps you share the right information in the right way, so you can balance how your personal contact information gets used — only for your benefit, and not for spam.

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