Losing your job can be an incredibly stressful and painful time. Fortunately, we have laws that protect us (or at least try to) from being taken advantage of by a company when we’re terminated or laid off from our job. Knowing your rights as an employee and what you’re entitled to after a layoff should take immediate precedence over the pending job hunt. By taking advantage of these company and government benefits, you can help reduce the stress of finding a new employer and easy some of the financial strain off of the process — even if the unemployment benefits tend to be meager in size.