6 things you NEED to hear if you've been laid off

There are positives here, people!

The news about the news business is bad. Again.

On Wednesday, CNN announced that it would lay off about 100 staffers — 3% of its workforce — as it seeks to move the massive media company more into the digital era.

This hit home for me. Because I used to work at CNN. And I got laid off — in the last major round of layoffs at the company in November 2022.

I remember how I felt then — alone, worthless, lost. And I still get an echo of that feeling every time I hear about the latest round of media layoffs. Which seem to happen basically every month now.

In hopes of helping people get through what is a really tough time, I wrote something back in January about the positive lessons I’ve learned in the wake of being laid off. I am republishing it today in hopes that it helps someone — in the media or not — who finds themselves out of work suddenly.

And I will reiterate an offer I made when I originally wrote the piece: If you live in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area (or are planning a visit) and have been laid off — whether from a journalism job or any other gig — I want to take you to coffee. On me. Email me at cillizzac@gmail.com and we will set it up. Standing offer. No expiration date.

Ok, now to the lessons.

1. This isn’t about you. There’s a nasty tendency to make being laid off an indictment of you, personally. After all, they could have cut ANYONE and they decided to cut you. It’s hard not to take it personally! But, believe me: It’s NOT about you. In virtually every one of these media layoffs, it’s a cost-cutting measure. You are, unfortunately, a line on an Excel spreadsheet. And if you make a decent amount of money, you are a VERY attractive line on that spreadsheet for an executive trying to meet some sort of budgetary bottom line. You are the same person that you were yesterday. A good one. Maybe a great one. This is not the final judgment on you.

2. You were laid off, not fired. Yes, there is a DIFFERENCE. A big one. People use these terms interchangeably but they shouldn’t. Being fired means YOU did something wrong. Something that the company decided meant that they needed to get you off their books. Being laid off, on the other hand, means that you were caught up in some sort of larger company restructuring. Your dismissal had zero to do with the quality of work you were doing. Also, language matters — both how you talk to other people about what happened and, maybe more importantly, how you talk to yourself about what happened. So practice making clear you were laid off, not fired. Trust me — it makes a difference in how you think of your situation.

3. People are, basically, good. In the immediate aftermath of CNN letting me go, I didn’t really want to see people. Any people. I was a semi-public personality — and it felt like every single person was judging me. (Fun fact: People are so wrapped up in their own stuff, they usually don’t even think about you and your stuff!). But, eventually — and it took a little while! — I started to reach out to friends and former colleagues. Just to get coffee. And pick their brains. At the end of each of those conversations, I asked them for three other people they thought I should talk to. Then I reached out to those folks. This process was great for two reasons: 1) It reconnected me with a lot of people I hadn’t seen or talked to in years (We’re all busy!) and 2) It connected me to a bunch of people I didn’t know before I got laid off. And it also taught me this: People are GOOD. They want to help. They will make time for you. It’s a really nice thing to realize.

4. You are a LOT more than your job. If you’re like me, you had a ton of your identity tied up in your job. I LOVED telling people I worked for the Washington Post. Or CNN. It made me feel successful, important. What getting laid off taught me that I was leaning WAY too much on my job to define who I was/am. I am a dad. A husband. A reader. A music lover. A pro wrestling fan. The words of Walt Whitman — “I am large/I contain multitudes” — run through my head almost daily now, a reminder that I am much more than CNN’s Chris Cillizza or the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza. The same is true for you. We ALL are MUCH more than the place where we work. Lean into some of your other interests for a while. You never know what you might find!

5. This happens to LOTS of people. Before I was laid off, I could probably think of five people I knew who had suffered a job loss. (In truth, most of the people I could name were fired in hugely high-profile ways.) But, when I started to put myself out there and talk to people, I was struck by just how many people had a story like mine: Laid off mid-career from a job (and a profession) they had done well in up until that point. The simple message: IT HAPPENS. There’s still a bit of a stigma around talking too much about it but I am really hoping we can change that over the next decade or so. (It’s not dissimilar to mental health; lots of people struggle with it, not as many people are comfortable talking about those struggles.) The point here is that you are not alone. Plenty of people — me included! — have gone through exactly what you are going through. Reach out. You never know what another person has experienced — and how that experience might be able to help you.

6. There is a wide world out there. Yes, lots of journalism jobs are disappearing. (I just wrote about this.) But, the creator economy is REAL. I didn’t know what I wanted to do post-CNN but I knew I loved writing and thinking (and talking) about politics. So, I started this Substack. And a YouTube channel. I also talked to people outside of journalism about what they did and whether I might be good at that thing. Through those conversations, I realized — importantly — what I DID NOT want to do. But I also got exposed to jobs I never even knew existed (and maybe didn’t even exist five years ago!). Don’t narrow your aperture because you’ve always been one thing professionally. The job market is vast and varied. There’s TONS out there that might be great for you that you don’t even know about yet!

If you take ANYTHING from this, please take this: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Millions of people have experienced job loss over the years. It can be an isolating experience but it doesn’t HAVE to be. You are much more than the decision of some executive. No one but you knows what you are capable of. Take a little time to process it all. That’s normal and fine (and I think healthy!). But know that there are people out there (like me!) who have gone through this too. And are here to help. Even if help means just listening to your story. Or helping you plan your next step.

PLEASE reach out if you need help. I will do anything in my ability to provide it. I am at cillizzac@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

And if you want to support my efforts to forge a path as an independent content creator, I’d ask you to become a paid subscriber to this newsletter. It’s $6 a month or $60 a year. Thanks, in advance, for your support.