When UK-based designer and illustrator Courtney Myers got laid off for the second time, the experience was eerily familiar. Another mysterious Google Meet invite over Slack. Another abrupt announcement that her job was gone — with no explanation. But unlike the first time, when she quickly found new work, this job search dragged on for months. Six months passed without success. Then another six.
It wasn’t until last December that she finally landed a full-time role at an events agency startup — and only after a bold piece of self-promotion went viral. The design, a twist on LinkedIn’s “#OpenToWork” banner, read simply: #Desperate.
“I really thought I’d find something right away because of all my experience,” Myers told Popsugar. “But the months dragged on.” At her lowest point, she was submitting up to 30 applications a day, often going through lengthy interview processes — complete with unpaid test assignments — only to be ghosted or rejected without feedback.
Her frustration peaked after reading that some recruiters found LinkedIn’s green #OpenToWork ribbon off-putting. In response, she created the #Desperate graphic and posted it online. The post exploded — more than 400,000 likes, nearly 10,000 comments — and struck a chord with job seekers everywhere.
“Frankly, I am desperate, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of,” she wrote. “Being laid off doesn’t mean you lack skills or work ethic — it’s just bad luck. No one should be embarrassed about needing to pay their bills or feed themselves.”
Finding solidarity in layoffs
Myers isn’t alone in turning frustration into creativity. Others have built entire platforms around the shared experience of losing a job.
When California-based labor reporter Melanie Ehrenkranz was laid off from her newsletter editor role in July 2023, she wanted a space that could both support her and continue her reporting. Instead of waiting for another role, she launched Laid Off, a Substack newsletter paired with a bustling Discord community of hundreds.
“Laid Off has been an idea brewing for years — after many late nights drinking cheap beer in bars with friends who’d just been laid off and felt awful,” she said. “I wanted the thing I wished I had after losing my job — not just a newsletter, but a community.”
Her interviews go beyond the polished LinkedIn announcements, asking blunt, human questions: What was the first thing you did after hearing the news? Who did you tell? What was your old coworkers’ group chat called?
One of the most-read series focuses on health insurance loss after layoffs, highlighting people forced to choose between rent and medical coverage — including cancer survivors, pregnant people, and those with chronic illnesses.
A job market that feels like “The Hunger Games”
The challenges Myers and Ehrenkranz faced are part of a much wider trend. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 7.5 million job losses across industries in Q4 2024 alone. News media layoffs rose 59% from the year before, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Career coach Chanelle Howell calls today’s job search “fatiguing to all parties” — not only for job seekers, but also for recruiters sifting through mountains of hastily submitted applications. She says LinkedIn has become a space of extremes: either “I got laid off” or “I’m thrilled to announce my promotion,” with little room for the messy middle where most careers live.
For Myers, the instability reshaped her life. Losing her London job meant giving up her just-rented apartment and moving back to her parents’ home in Southampton — too far for many city-based roles that had returned to in-office work.
“It feels like you have to do something wild to stand out — know someone at the company, create a viral campaign,” she said. “It’s like the Hunger Games. There’s no right way to do it anymore, and that’s confusing for many people.”
While the process isn’t getting easier, communities like Laid Off and viral acts of candor like Myers’s banner are chipping away at the stigma of unemployment. As Ehrenkranz puts it:
“Layoffs are happening all around us. Let’s make it less isolating, maybe even a little fun. And let’s help each other out.”