Welcome to Laid Off

The coolest place on the internet to talk about being laid off.

Hi! I’m Melanie. I have more friends that’ve been laid off over the last decade than not.

Layoffs can be a radicalizing moment – you realize work is not your family, job stability when you’re not the boss is a precarious promise, and that even a depressingly widespread phenomena can feel crushingly lonely.

I want to go deeper than layoff posts on LinkedIn – I want to know how your boss handled it. If there were signs. Who the first person you told was. What you did for health insurance. If you have a group chat with your former colleagues (and what it’s called).

That’s why I started Laid Off, a weekly interview series with smart and cool people who were laid off.

I’ve interviewed former workers at Condé Nast, Google, Tesla, Paramount, and TechCrunch. I’ve also talked to people laid off on vacation, while chronically ill, as they’re financially supporting their parents, and on their birthday.

Free readers get weekly (ish) interviews and access to the chat.

This is also a community, and a paid perk includes access to the Laid Off Discord. It’s where you can share your layoff story, job hunting experiences, ask for feedback on your resume, share side hustle ideas and job opportunities, and plug your work.

Paid readers are also eligible for Laid Off Pen Pals, a month-long program that matches you up with another reader to make the post-layoff experience a little less isolating and even kinda fun.

Welcome to the Laid Off universe. I’m glad you found us.