[emil_stoyanov]

Depends on the size of the company I guess. My observation in big corporations is that the layoff communications are delayed until the last possible moment so that they can keep the work going while the restructuring is being executed on a higher level. This makes sense from company's perspective but is hardly right towards the employees. For a startup, I guess it's up to the founders to decide how they want to handle the situation. They can be right open and let the employees know bad times are coming and eventually rely on the employees to get out of the crisis or they can keep the bad news until the last possible moment. Generally, the signs are: delayed salaries (for startups), less and less requirements towards your tasks and performance, detached management, lack of communication for future objectives and plans, reduction of "unimportant meetings", no plans for upcoming company celebrations (like Christmas), etc.