Latest news with #Ehrenkranz
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
"Amen" at the end of the long day: Laid-off workers seek community and solace online
When Melanie Ehrenkranz, the founder of the 'Laid Off' Substack newsletter, launched her newsletter for unemployed workers in August 2024, she didn't expect to create a vibrant, active community of over 11,000 readers in less than a year. In addition to the newsletter, Ehrenkranz also runs a Discord community, which offers its members additional ways to connect, support each other and navigate the uncharted waters of unemployment during the second Trump term. This community is private for paid readers at the monthly fee of $5. While the particular kind of financial strain and psychological pressures that characterize unemployment have been around as long as there have been jobs, the scale of layoffs, the transformative nature of AI that is upending entire industries, stubborn inflation, economic uncertainty and new ways social media is connecting people again post-pandemic makes 2025 a unique time to be navigating the ever-shifting job market. 'This moment feels heavier,' Ehrenkranz told Salon. 'People aren't just getting laid off — they're getting ghosted, strung along, maybe even experiencing their second or third or fifth layoff in their career.' Magenta Fox, one of the members of the community Ehrenkranz created, has been laid off since 2023. Fox says this period of unemployment is 'vastly different' from the other times she was laid off, in 2009 and during 2016-2018. 'With this search, I've paid for resume rewrites and interview coaching— something I've never done at any point in my career,' Fox said. 'And it seems like there's no end in sight. At least with the Great Recession it seemed like there was an effort in Washington to try to make things better.' This time around, Fox found her interactions with recruiters more cutthroat. 'I've had recruiters no-show on calls and write rude emails— something I've never gotten from anyone, recruiter or no, in my professional life, ever,' she said. The uptick in ghosting behavior from recruiters adds to the mental health toll job hunting can take. 'The psychological effect was really enormous,' said New York-based Dio Martins, who has been recently laid off and has just landed a new remote opportunity. Martins found networking and connecting with friends helpful in his job search. 'It's incredible how helpful a little text message can be to someone, just reminding you that you're not alone, and to keep trying things,' he said. As of late May 2025, U.S. employers cut nearly half a million jobs, which is a 93% jump compared to the same period last year. So far, 2025 has been a brutal year for US employees. Major U.S. employers like Chevron, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Blue Origin, Estée Lauder, Kohl's, Southwest Airlines, Walmart and Business Insider have announced major layoffs ranging from hundreds to thousands of jobs. Inspired by communities like Rachel Karten's Link in Bio Discord and Julia Harrison's Saloon Substack, Ehrenkranz wanted to remove the stigma from being unemployed and create a nurturing environment for those looking to get back on their feet. 'I noticed a lot of readers were using the Substack Chat to share their stories and ask for advice, and so I wanted to create a space that had more layers to it for people experiencing job loss to connect,' Ehrenkranz said. 'The intention behind the Discord, similar to the overall mission, is for people to feel less alone and to destigmatize layoffs. And also to have some fun and maybe make some friends.' Over time, she noticed that members started using the Discord as a way to deal with the day-to-day pressures of job searching, both online and in person. 'I've seen people in the Discord share advice on how to post about their layoff on LinkedIn without it feeling cringe, how to wear their hair in a Zoom job interview, how to respond to a hiring manager that ghosted them after several rounds of interviews, and how to tweak their resume so it doesn't get trashed by ATS software,' she said. 'I've also increasingly seen folks trying to meet up outside of the Discord, whether it's in a vent session on Google Meet or grabbing drinks during the week.' Ultimately, the mental health break and human connection is what online communities like 'Laid Off' offer its members: without the gloss or pretenses of traditional social media or the unproductive bureaucracy of an unemployment office. 'In this economy, finding full-time employment is like finding a needle in a haystack,' said 25-year-old Niya Doyle, one of the people Ehrenkranz profiled for her newsletter. Doyle made a TikTok about how she was laid off, one of many who turned to social media to seek solace from others going through the same experience. 'I just saw a lot of my FYP even before I got laid off,' she said. 'I guess it makes it feel like you're not alone. It's comforting.' Whether it's Substack comments, Reddit forums, Discord communities or TikTok posts detailing their layoff experiences, more job seekers are finding comfort in numbers on social media, making their isolating experience of a layoff a little bit more palatable. 'They're the co-workers I wish I had, in a way,' Fox said about the Laid Off community. 'We exchange tips and share rejection stories. I feel like I can go there to vent without being seen as a bummer.'
Sydney Morning Herald
15-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Ever worried about being laid off? You should read this
Among the layoff stories the newsletter has told are those of a former Wall Street Journal editor, a former recruiter for Meta, a former content manager at Tesla and a former financial analyst at Disney who was with the company for nearly a decade. Laid Off 's Q&A interviews touch on topics people sometimes avoid when talking about unemployment. Ehrenkranz's go-to questions for subjects include 'What were the reasons given for your layoff?' and 'What was the first thing you did after getting laid off?' She said the newsletter's tone was meant to be edgy and fun; a tagline on its website reads: 'The coolest place on the internet to talk about being laid off.' 'It's definitely that vibe,' Ehrenkranz said. 'The whole point of Laid Off is to show that it's not a personal failure.' Anu Lingala, 33, spoke to Ehrenkranz about losing her job at Nordstrom in a feature published in March. 'Her interviews are so humanising,' said Lingala, who lives in New York and now works in marketing at a jewellery company. 'They unpack the shame around being laid off.' The newsletter has a confessional-like quality that Lindsey Stanberry, a former editor of the Money Diaries column on the website Refinery29, appreciates. 'There's a voyeuristic element to it,' said Stanberry, 44, who now writes The Purse, a Substack newsletter about women and money. 'It's like, it could happen to me, or it has happened to me, and, like, I want to feel this camaraderie.' Loading Maya Joseph-Goteiner, 41, was among Laid Off 's first subjects: Her interview about losing her user-experience job at Google ran in the newsletter in August. In it, Joseph-Goteiner recalled going bowling with her family the day she was laid off and how the experience pushed her in new professional directions. Participating was an opportunity to offer a 'counter narrative' to the desperation and shame that can bubble up when talking about losing a job, she said. 'My story felt like one of resilience, and I want there to be more stories like that,' said Joseph-Goteiner, who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and now runs her own research and design agency called Velocity Ave. Ochuko Akpovbovbo, the writer of As Seen On, a Substack newsletter about business trends that is geared toward her fellow Gen Zers, said some in that cohort had shown less interest in careers in media and technology than members of older generations. Laid Off 's interviews with people who have lost jobs in those industries have helped contribute to 'the end of Big Tech and journalism worship,' added Akpovbovbo, 26, whose newsletter was introduced last May and has about 22,000 subscribers. For Joya Patel, Laid Off is a platform to remind people of the importance of certain careers. She pitched herself to Ehrenkranz after losing her job as the director of communications and external affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in February. Patel, 34, who also subscribed to the newsletter around that time, said she had been motivated to share her story after reading another Laid Off interview with a former communications specialist at the US Agency for International Development. 'I really wanted people to understand, OK, what does working at HHS mean?' said Patel. 'The American people don't know what each agency does for them and what we sit in there to do.'
The Age
15-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Ever worried about being laid off? You should read this
Among the layoff stories the newsletter has told are those of a former Wall Street Journal editor, a former recruiter for Meta, a former content manager at Tesla and a former financial analyst at Disney who was with the company for nearly a decade. Laid Off 's Q&A interviews touch on topics people sometimes avoid when talking about unemployment. Ehrenkranz's go-to questions for subjects include 'What were the reasons given for your layoff?' and 'What was the first thing you did after getting laid off?' She said the newsletter's tone was meant to be edgy and fun; a tagline on its website reads: 'The coolest place on the internet to talk about being laid off.' 'It's definitely that vibe,' Ehrenkranz said. 'The whole point of Laid Off is to show that it's not a personal failure.' Anu Lingala, 33, spoke to Ehrenkranz about losing her job at Nordstrom in a feature published in March. 'Her interviews are so humanising,' said Lingala, who lives in New York and now works in marketing at a jewellery company. 'They unpack the shame around being laid off.' The newsletter has a confessional-like quality that Lindsey Stanberry, a former editor of the Money Diaries column on the website Refinery29, appreciates. 'There's a voyeuristic element to it,' said Stanberry, 44, who now writes The Purse, a Substack newsletter about women and money. 'It's like, it could happen to me, or it has happened to me, and, like, I want to feel this camaraderie.' Loading Maya Joseph-Goteiner, 41, was among Laid Off 's first subjects: Her interview about losing her user-experience job at Google ran in the newsletter in August. In it, Joseph-Goteiner recalled going bowling with her family the day she was laid off and how the experience pushed her in new professional directions. Participating was an opportunity to offer a 'counter narrative' to the desperation and shame that can bubble up when talking about losing a job, she said. 'My story felt like one of resilience, and I want there to be more stories like that,' said Joseph-Goteiner, who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and now runs her own research and design agency called Velocity Ave. Ochuko Akpovbovbo, the writer of As Seen On, a Substack newsletter about business trends that is geared toward her fellow Gen Zers, said some in that cohort had shown less interest in careers in media and technology than members of older generations. Laid Off 's interviews with people who have lost jobs in those industries have helped contribute to 'the end of Big Tech and journalism worship,' added Akpovbovbo, 26, whose newsletter was introduced last May and has about 22,000 subscribers. For Joya Patel, Laid Off is a platform to remind people of the importance of certain careers. She pitched herself to Ehrenkranz after losing her job as the director of communications and external affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in February. Patel, 34, who also subscribed to the newsletter around that time, said she had been motivated to share her story after reading another Laid Off interview with a former communications specialist at the US Agency for International Development. 'I really wanted people to understand, OK, what does working at HHS mean?' said Patel. 'The American people don't know what each agency does for them and what we sit in there to do.'
New York Times
03-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Ever Worried About Being Laid Off? Read This.
Steve Jaffe was laid off for the first time in 2001. But that wasn't the last time for Mr. Jaffe, now 52 and a self-employed marketing strategist in Altadena, Calif. He was laid off three more times over the course of his career, he said, and wrote a book about his experiences that he self-published in February. In addition to writing about jobs he has lost, Mr. Jaffe has been reading the layoff stories of others in Laid Off, a new Substack newsletter. 'A support group like this for laid-off people has always been needed,' he said. Melanie Ehrenkranz, 35, started Laid Off last August, about a year after she lost her job at a financial technology company that has since closed. After being laid off, she said, 'I didn't really feel like I had access to a community or to stories of layoffs outside of a group chat with two of my former colleagues.' By the time she introduced the newsletter, Ms. Ehrenkranz, who lives in Los Angeles, had started working for Business Class, an online entrepreneurship course created by the '#Girlboss' author Sophia Amoruso, where Ms. Ehrenkranz is still employed. Within two months of debuting, Laid Off had about 5,000 subscribers. It now has about 9,000, with more than 150 paying $5 a month or $50 a year for full subscriptions that include additional resources like access to private group chats. Many subscribers work in layoff-prone industries like media, marketing and advertising, Ms. Ehrenkranz said, adding that she had recently noticed an uptick in subscribers with careers in government and technology. Laid Off's audience is a fraction of the size of more established Substack business publications like Feed Me. Its growth in readership comes at a time when posting about work online has become commonplace, whether it be 'LinkedIn-fluencers' sharing hot takes on corporate trends or people making TikTok videos about office outfits. And at a time when there have been growing concerns about a recession and a rise in unemployment. Some of those featured in the newsletter reached out to Ms. Ehrenkranz after losing jobs; others were chosen after completing a survey that she had posted on LinkedIn, which 'received hundreds of responses right away,' she said. More women have been featured than men, Ms. Ehrenkranz added, because more women have approached her about participating. Among the layoff stories the newsletter has told are those of a former Wall Street Journal editor, a former recruiter for Meta, a former content manager at Tesla and a former financial analyst at Disney who was with the company for nearly a decade. Laid Off's Q&A interviews touch on topics people sometimes avoid when talking about unemployment. Ms. Ehrenkranz's go-to questions for subjects include 'What were the reasons given for your layoff?' and 'What was the first thing you did after getting laid off?' She said the newsletter's tone was meant to be edgy and fun; a tagline on its website reads: 'The coolest place on the internet to talk about being laid off.' 'It's definitely that vibe,' Ms. Ehrenkranz said. 'The whole point of Laid Off is to show that it's not a personal failure.' Anu Lingala, 33, spoke to Ms. Ehrenkranz about losing her job at Nordstrom in a feature published in March. 'Her interviews are so humanizing,' said Ms. Lingala, who lives in Brooklyn and now works in marketing at a jewelry company. 'They unpack the shame around being laid off.' The newsletter has a confessional-like quality that Lindsey Stanberry, a former editor of the Money Diaries column on the website Refinery29, appreciates. 'There's a voyeuristic element to it,' said Ms. Stanberry, 44, who now writes The Purse, a Substack newsletter about women and money. 'It's like, it could happen to me, or it has happened to me, and, like, I want to feel this camaraderie.' Maya Joseph-Goteiner, 41, was among Laid Off's first subjects: Her interview about losing her user-experience job at Google ran in the newsletter last August. In it, Ms. Joseph-Goteiner recalled going bowling with her family the day she was laid off and how the experience pushed her in new professional directions. Participating was an opportunity to offer a 'counter narrative' to the desperation and shame that can bubble up when talking about losing a job, she said. 'My story felt like one of resilience, and I want there to be more stories like that,' said Ms. Joseph-Goteiner, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., and now runs her own research and design agency called Velocity Ave. Ochuko Akpovbovbo, the writer of As Seen On, a Substack newsletter about business trends that is geared toward her fellow Gen Z-ers, said some in that cohort had shown less interest in careers in media and technology than members of older generations. Laid Off's interviews with people who have lost jobs in those industries have helped contribute to 'the end of Big Tech and journalism worship,' added Ms. Akpovbovbo, 26, whose newsletter was introduced last May and has about 22,000 subscribers. For Joya Patel, Laid Off is a platform to remind people of the importance of certain careers. She pitched herself to Ms. Ehrenkranz after losing her job as the director of communications and external affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services in February. Ms. Patel, 34, who also subscribed to the newsletter around that time, said she had been motivated to share her story after reading another Laid Off interview with a former communications specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development. 'I really wanted people to understand, OK, what does working at H.H.S. mean?' said Ms. Patel, referring to the federal health agency. 'The American people don't know what each agency does for them and what we sit in there to do.' Ms. Patel, who is now consulting and whose Laid Off feature was published in April, likes how the newsletter lets readers 'hear from the people,' she added. 'I'm tired of companies being able to direct us and lead stories. As humans, we have that power, and I like to hear from people like, 'Hey, I walked in, it was awkward. Things were awkward that day. This is why they told me they're doing it.' Because no company is ever going to say that.'
