#50: 1 Year Anniversary Post: Laid Off Life
How it started, how it's going. Plus, your top 10 newsletters this year.
Laid Off Life is a place of respite for the weary workforce. Whether you’re unemployed, underemployed, or just trying to make it through the workday, let this be your 5-minute mental break from the grind of late-stage capitalism.
1 Year of Laid Off Life
WARNING: Earnestness below.
When I started this newsletter, I had literally no idea where I’d be in a year — what I’d be doing for money, where I’d be living, or how my life would look. Several months after being laid off from my corporate media job, I was at rock bottom, unemployed, applying and interviewing for jobs I didn’t really want, not clear on my career goals or even my career desires. All I knew was that I wanted to document my journey.
One weekend, tired of feeling unmoored, not knowing where to go to share all the feels I was processing through, I sat on the couch, built my Substack profile, and wrote some thoughts down. I had 0 subscribers, just a short list of friends who I knew wouldn’t be mad if I sent them my most vulnerable thoughts and feelings about unemployment.
One year later, there are nearly 500 of you, LOLers!!
For that, I am SO. INCREDIBLY. GRATEFUL.
I’m grateful for your comments, your emails, the in-person meetups. Just knowing that I was not alone on this journey was the sustenance I needed to get through what was one of the most challenging and change-filled years of my life. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.
One year later, my whole life is different. I’ve stopped applying for jobs I don’t want, and started doing work that makes me happy - from freelance projects to launching my own business and working with clients to finally tackling various creative projects that have been buzzing around in my head for years. I even sold a movie! It finally feels like all the disparate pieces are starting to come together now that my definition of success is no longer tied to a job title or a company.
While I don’t yet have everything “figured out,” I have forward momentum. I no longer lay awake at night wondering if I will ever work again. That sounds silly when I read it now, but at certain points, I truly felt that way.
If I can boil this year of Laid Off Life down to one big truth that I’ve learned, it’s that I must work from a place of joy.
That doesn’t mean I have to feel joyful about every task that I do, just that I must approach my career with joy. Whenever I feel lost, (and I still do some days) I ask myself, What brings me joy? Then I do that.
If you’re in a dark hole post-layoff, grinding at a job you hate, or in the midst of a career PIVOT, I’m here to let you know that there are signs of life on the other side. Thank you for joining me on this journey. In honor of Laid Off Life’s one-year anniversary, here are your top 10 newsletters this year.
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