Social media

All You Grateful Laid-Off People On LinkedIn Need To Get Real

WTF is wrong with you people?

She looks so happy. She was probably just fired. Photo by on

When I was laid off from a job I loved — editor of my town’s daily newspaper — I said nothing on social media for a day. I knew it was coming and had already been quietly taking home a few personal items each day, but the pain was intense anyway.

A day later, I was ready to post about it. I took the moral high road and didn’t bad-mouth GateHouse Media but I expressed my sadness at the end of my newspaper career, my pride in my accomplishments and my hope for success in another industry.

That’s a normal way to respond to losing your job.

Do you know what isn’t normal?

The bullshit I’ve been reading from laid-off folks on LinkedIn.

If you’re on that platform, you’ve seen it. There are plenty of recent examples from people who just lost their job with Twitter or Facebook/Meta.

Well, many of them did not “lose their job,” actually. They were “impacted by the layoffs” at their former employer. I keep seeing that phrase.

Why don’t they want to actually say it? Why the euphemism?