Laid off from Viasat.

What Viasat layoffs have meant for employees

About 160 of the November 2023 cuts were Carlsbad headquarters jobs, KPBS reported, while the state's 2023-24 WARN report separately lists a Viasat notice for the campus address, dated November 1, that covers 228 jobs, plus a second notice for 11 in San Jose. Those are two different records, a news count of headquarters jobs and a state filing for an address, and neither one explains the other. If you were at the campus that fall, both are public, and the state's is the one tied to a site and a date.

For people who'd been at Viasat a while, 2023 brought two rounds in one year. The spring cut came before the Inmarsat purchase closed in May, and the November one came after it, as the company fit the two businesses together. That second round wasn't confined to one office or one business line. Viasat said, according to Via Satellite, that it would spread the cuts across geographies and divisions and that a majority of its employees would still be in the U.S. and the U.K. afterward. President Guru Gowrappan tied the changes to the company's goal of focusing spending on its biggest growth opportunities, and a Viasat statement quoted by KPBS called the decision part of its ongoing strategy to streamline operations. Viasat projected yearly savings from the program starting in fiscal 2025, and its November 2023 8-K expected most of the charges in fiscal 2024's second half. If you're explaining a Viasat exit to a future employer, that filing's description, a rationalization of roles across the global business, is a public account you can point to.

Viasat's 2023 California notices put about two months between a notice's date and the date it took effect. The spring notices, dated March 31, took effect June 2, according to California's 2022-23 report, and the November 1 notices took effect January 2, 2024, with Carlsbad and San Jose on matching dates each time. The state logged them later, receiving the spring notices on April 7 and the November ones on December 5. If you're rebuilding a timeline from either round, those three dates per notice are the public markers, and a notice's effective date is the one California has on file for its site.

The 2020 cuts reached people who kept their jobs, too. President and COO Rick Baldridge called them cost-reduction actions to help navigate the economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Union-Tribune, and said the layoffs weren't centered in one division or location. Besides a reduction in force of a little over 300, Viasat was putting more staff on furlough, had frozen salaries for much of its workforce except people under a pay threshold, and had frozen hiring in general, management said on the May 2020 earnings call, naming in-flight connectivity and support as the main area of the cuts. In-flight Wi-Fi had made up 10 percent of Viasat's $2.1 billion in revenue the year before, the Union-Tribune noted, while demand for air travel plunged. In that year, then, a furlough or a frozen raise came out of the same cost push as the layoffs.

If you worked for Viasat in California, the state's claim process is set out on California unemployment benefits. The company has also had operations in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Arizona and Ohio, the 2020 Union-Tribune report noted, and anyone who worked for it in those states or elsewhere can find their own state's rules among the state unemployment pages.

A sourced history of Viasat layoffs

• November 2023, role cuts after the Inmarsat purchase

  Viasat planned to cut about 800 roles, close to a tenth of its global workforce, after buying Inmarsat, and put the expected charges near $45 million, chiefly severance payments, benefits and termination costs, its November 2023 8-K said.

• March 2023, about 300 jobs cut worldwide

  Viasat was shedding about 300 jobs, the Union-Tribune reported, including 72 at its Carlsbad headquarters and 35 remote workers in California. Its March 31 notices to the state listed 107 at the campus address and 4 in San Jose, California's 2022-23 report shows.

• April 2020, coronavirus lockdown layoffs

  Viasat laid off about 320 people, about 6% of its workforce, the Union-Tribune reported, and offered severance packages and outplacement help. Viasat filed an April 22 notice for 131 Carlsbad jobs, our WARN tracker shows.

What to do if you're laid off from Viasat

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Viasat's biggest hubs: California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Viasat's hub states run: California, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.