What to do just in case I lost my job?

If you were going to fire someone, why would you tell the insurance contractor first? There are very few losses to the company involved in insuring you for two weeks while they're waiting to lay you off. Now, companies have done stupid things like that before, so I'm not saying you should rely on them being intelligent about all this, but think about what you're saying: you mention that, in order to make sure that tight security is maintained, you're under the impression that if they were going to fire you they'd do it fast, taking away your user privileges and then showing you the door in one fell swoop. If it's standard security practice not to let someone know they're being fired until it happens, wouldn't it be sort of silly to turn around and inform the insurance contractor a month beforehand? Again, I've known companies that have done much stupider things, so I'm not putting anything past them. I'm only pointing out that such a policy would hardly make sense to any intelligent person in charge of it. Firing somebody isn't exactly some big process that takes weeks of planning and preparation, so I have a feeling your sense that they would have already set wheels in motion if they were going to fire you is probably incorrect. Unfortunately, if an employer wants to fire you without warning, there's very little stopping him.

ineptly phrased was of saying Rather, "ineptly phrased way of saying"

I don't think you're overreacting because you, as well as any employee, should have already done your steps 1-3 even if your job was smooth sailing. The waiting game you're playing is no fun, but don't do anything regarding your elevated access. Just leave everything as is until it's time to report back to work.

It's always a good idea to back up personal data, including reviews and work you've done. Make sure you have email addresses you might need, esp. for references. I would be VERY careful doing this. You probably do not own the work that you have done as an employee of this company, and you can very well get fired (and sued, even) for downloading this kind of work. Contact information for colleagues is one thing, but taking "company property" is quite another. Anyway, otherwise I agree with everyone else that you are probably worried over nothing. This sounds pretty standard for insurance terms.

The benefits enrollment package at my company is one calendar year. Each year we have to re-enroll, and each year we get a year end statement for that year. If this is just insurance statements you are looking at, I think it is very tiny possibility that you are being terminated.

Bring in an external hard drive and back up all your stuff immediately, get it out of the building (maybe your car) as soon as you're done. I'd include all your e-mail in case you need to point to an old message in the future: "Of course I documented that issue, here's a copy of the e-mail I sent you on xx/xx/xxxx at xx:xx". Speaking from experience, it's also useful if a co-workers asks for help in the future - then again I quit, I wasn't laid off. Also back up any code or scripts or documentation you wrote - I refer to my old work all the time when writing code. Of course you don't want to distribute this stuff, your employer owns it, but it's for your reference. Maybe make a copy of the company directory, with phones/e-mails, in case you need to call people up for references or letters of recommendations? posted by exhilaration at 3:36 PM on December 28 [+] [!] I disagree with this advice, given that you almost surely are subject to some kind of confidentiality agreement (or, barring that, at least a common law obligation of confidentiality) that would preclude you from taking much of this information. This kind of behavior will appear very suspicious and may actually get you fired, if discovered, even if you weren't on a to be term'd list.

Our employee insurance coverage generally changes from year to year based on God knows what - usually minimally but sometimes dramatically - this may just reflect a company-wide tweak to your benefits large enough to be considered a new plan or policy(?)

Can you email a co-worker/friend and ask them if they received correspondence from the same insurer with similar (or different) wording? I'm with everyone else in that, to my eyes, this sounds like standard end-of-year, change of annual policy language, but our sample size is about as small as possible. If a co-worker has a letter from the same insurer that is either the same or different, you can parse this with much greater accuracy.

"The statement is intended to remind active participants enrolled for the 2009 plan year that ... Has a comfortingly generic sound to it -- but you really should just call them. That's a high level of anxiety to put up with for more than a couple of hours.