{"id":78832,"date":"2025-04-11T08:54:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T15:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/?p=78832"},"modified":"2025-04-15T15:27:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T22:27:27","slug":"laid-off-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/internet-culture\/laid-off-newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the newsletter making layoffs feel less bleak and more like a group chat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn\u2019t perfect, but we know the internet is pretty darn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for human connection, and lets everyone find where they belong \u2014 their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In <\/em>My Corner Of The Internet<\/em><\/a>, we talk with people about the online spaces they can\u2019t get enough of, the sites and forums that shaped them, and how they would design their own corner of the web.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with Melanie Ehrenkranz, the writer and creative strategist behind Laid Off<\/a>, a weekly newsletter interviewing people about job loss \u2014 and everything wrapped up in it. She talks about building a space that\u2019s \u201creal, not bleak\u201d; the forums and fan theories that keep her online; and how her inbox became one of her favorite places to hang out online.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your favorite corner of the internet? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I run a dedicated Discord for Laid Off \u2013 we just hit 800 members and it\u2019s the most supportive community. It\u2019s weird to say \u201cwe have fun\u201d when referring to a space for people affected by layoffs, but we really do. There was a tight group of members that used to show up each week in the #severance channel to share live reactions to new episodes on Thursday nights. The rest of the week, people could talk about actual severance, that thing that you might get a few weeks or months of, if you\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an internet deep dive that you can’t wait to jump back into?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Yellowjackets subreddit after new episodes drop. The last two seasons have really gone off the rails, but I\u2019m here til the end. I probably enjoy reading people\u2019s theories more than the actual episodes these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the one tab you always regret closing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My former editor (and friend) Cooper Fleishman has written an incredible Survivor watch guide. I am extremely late to the fandom, but now I\u2019m locked in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you not stop talking about on the internet right now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Layoffs. I started my Substack, Laid Off, in August of last year. I interview smart and cool people who have been laid off each week. I also work on ~quarterly trend reports to better understand the layoff landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the first online community you engaged with?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a blur of AIM chat rooms, MySpace, and Neopets. A lot of huddling around my hunking my computer, setting moody away messages, checking changes in my friends\u2019 top eights, and saving up for new paint brushes. I miss how slow things were, and not just the actual lack of speed, but how unfazed I was by it. Downloading a Strokes song on Kazaa meant adding another 10 to 20 minutes of load time. I\u2019d just throw on an away message and play outside while the page loaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could create your own corner of the internet, what would it look like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the hope with Laid Off. I\u2019m trying to build the coolest place on the internet to talk about being laid off. I want it to feel cathartic, not bleak, but no toxic positivity. A space that feels nonjudgmental and inclusive. No assholes. Treat everyone with kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newsletter and community isn\u2019t just for people who\u2019ve been laid off, though they\u2019re at the heart of it. It\u2019s also meant to illuminate the cracks in our systems and how work, stability and identity are shifting for all of us. To help us understand what\u2019s broken, what\u2019s changing and what we might build next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What articles and\/or videos are you waiting to read\/watch right now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I discover the coolest reads and recs from some of my favorite Substacks \u2013 as seen on<\/a> by Ochuko Akpovbovbo, Feed Me<\/a> by Emily Sundberg, Read Max<\/a> by Max Read, Bad Brain<\/a> by Ashley Reese, Extracurricular<\/a> by Tembe Denton-Hurst, You\u2019ve Got Lipstick on Your Chin<\/a> by Arabelle Sicardi, and Gen-Z Gov<\/a> by Kate Glavan, and the Dirt<\/a> universe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


I rarely go to a publication\u2019s homepage anymore \u2013 I\u2019m either reading\/clicking straight from my inbox or the Substack app. And with all the brands making their way to the platform, I\u2019ll be even more incentivized to hang out in my inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Substack has created a space where people can be real about job loss. What\u2019s something surprising you\u2019ve learned from these conversations?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I try to leave my assumptions at the door. What did surprise me was how many<\/em> conversations are happening. I get notifications all day long of people starting new threads in the Substack Chat and on Discord, covering\u2026 everything and anything. People venting about how AI is screwing them over both in the job search process and within their actual careers. People wondering if it\u2019s normal for a hiring manager to ask them to take a personality test. Dissecting insensitive language of rejection emails, or swapping \u201cgetting ghosted\u201d stories. Someone even dropped a photo of their redacted severance contract in a thread the other week for legal and negotiation advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Melanie Ehrenkranz<\/em> is a writer and creative strategist focused on community, technology and power.<\/em> She leads content and community for Sophia Amoruso\u2019s Business Class, a membership-based digital entrepreneurship community and course for founders, freelancers, solopreneurs, creators and side hustlers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn\u2019t perfect, but we know the internet is pretty darn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for human connection, and lets everyone find where they belong \u2014 their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1889,"featured_media":78822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461998,464320],"tags":[4708,464099],"coauthors":[464117],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInside the newsletter making layoffs feel less bleak and more like a group chat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We caught up with Melanie Ehrenkranz, the writer and creative strategist behind Laid Off, a newsletter interviewing people about job loss.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/internet-culture\/laid-off-newsletter\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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