Prepare your information and (if relevant) property. See Go Bags
Collect emails and phone numbers of HR folks in your local/regional/national office. Get a generic HR@agency.gov too just in case those contacts become unavailable.
Polish up your non-federal resume. Make sure to download a copy of your Federal resume from USA Jobs just in case it goes down for an extended time. Start applying for jobs now.
Download record of any training or certificates that may be useful in pursuing future employment.
If applicable, consider joining your union, sign up to pay your dues directly (not via your pay check)
Exercise caution and intentional decision making about non-mandatory trainings you choose to attend. The administration has used employee participation in voluntary online trainings to take adverse actions against employees
Use sick leave. Use it for keeping yourself healthy. Use it to keep your family healthy. If they’re gonna RIF or lay you off, your sick leave won’t be paid out. If you have medical needs or appointments that you have been putting off schedule that care now.
Use time-off/comptime/credit hours. These are not always paid out if you are laid off.
Start saving money now. Have an emergency fund and a plan with your family. Do not ask yourself “I wonder if it will happen to me”? Instead, ask yourself: “If I were laid off next week, what would I do, what would I need?” Have this conversation with your family. Look at the resources for fired people ahead of time.
TIP!: if it makes sense for you, you may want to consider a TSP in-service loan* *against your TSP funds. If you apply while you are still employed you get better terms and can carry those terms into unemployment. Interest is paid back to yourself. This is* ***muchbetter than doing early withdrawals or living off of credit cards.