It’s an ordinary Tuesday. You’re making coffee, answering emails, maybe thinking about lunch. Then a message appears: a meeting request from HR, a phone call you didn’t expect, or a chat with your manager that begins, “I’m afraid I have some bad news.” Just like that, the floor falls out from under you.
The next few minutes passed in a strange blur. You hear some words (“restructure,” “at risk,” “we value everything you contribute”), but they seem to come from afar. You nod. You might even weirdly say thank you. Then it’s all over, you’re back at your desk, and all the weight starts to fall.
What about mortgages? rent? What do you tell people? What do you tell yourself? The panic comes in waves: hot, disorienting, deeply personal. Even if you’ve felt it coming, even if some part of you has seen the signs, it can still feel like a betrayal. It’s like failure. Like you must have done something wrong.
You haven’t yet. And you’re not alone.
Our editor Katy Cowan knows this feeling all too well. Having been laid off herself—an experience that led her to freelancing and ultimately founding Creative Boom—she recently invited our community to share their own stories on LinkedIn and The Studio. Overall, what emerges is something close to a layoff survival guide.
The moment everything changed
For public relations expert Linda Harrison, the call came on an ordinary work morning. She was at home when the business owner called and referred her to his attorney. The company is closing. Everyone lost their jobs that day. That was before her 50th birthday and three weeks before Christmas.
“I went through every emotion that Christmas: denial, anger, sadness,” she recalls. “It felt hopeless. Despite working there for seven years, we had to sign up for government schemes and wait for our severance pay. It was horrible: there was no money coming in at all.”
Payment arrived four months later. Linda was out having lunch with her husband to celebrate her 50th birthday when the email arrived. That’s when she started freelancing almost by accident. Today, three years later, she runs a thriving PR agency in Yorkshire. “I believe that phone call was the best thing that ever happened to me in my career,” she says now.
The cost of quiet that no one talks about
What is often missing from discussions about layoffs is an honest acknowledgment of how precarious they can be. Not just financially, but socially and emotionally as well.
Take digital marketing leader Charlotte Fish, for example. A single woman in her thirties, saddled with a mortgage and no one else to pay the bills, sat for a day and then began a frantic job search. Four weeks and six interviews later, she chose between two final-stage offers…and made a decision that surprised even herself.
“I accepted a job with the ‘less healthy’ company of the two,” she explains. “But it turned out to be the most wholesome experience of any job I’ve ever had. It was a step up in every aspect and challenged me in the best possible way every day. Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes there needs to be a catalyst for change. Layoffs may be one of those times.”
She also had a message for those who survived the cull. “The silence from colleagues who have managed to keep their jobs is deafening. It can make people feel abandoned; like you did something wrong or should be made redundant, but that’s not the case. To employers: If you really care, share us with your network. Help us succeed. Throw us overboard and save yourself, that’s fine, but at least send us a life jacket.”
Requires resilience
However, even if others help you, you do need to develop resilience to survive layoffs and get back on your feet. That’s what Charlotte Cowling, director of marketing and growth at Fiasco Design, learned from being laid off three times. “There’s no doubt it shakes your self-esteem, it’s terrible,” she said. But she also knows exactly what it teaches you. “I have an unshakable resilience these days, which became apparent when the third layoff happened. Other team members who were let go were a mess, but I remember feeling very calm and relaxed. I believed it was going to work out because that’s how it was before. You’re always going to be okay.”
Creative director Vicky Broddle will recognize this dynamic, having been laid off twice since October 2022. For the first time, she finally found her dream role, hoping to reach the level of creative director. Nine months later, she was out. She freelanced through 2023, eventually landing a year-long creative director position on the maternity cover (“I finally became one of the 17% of female creative directors”) before facing a second layoff in early 2025.
Her reaction? A well-earned defiance. “I firmly believe, as before, that only good will come from this rejection,” she insisted. Everything is a lesson and a learning curve. This is hard to accept sometimes, but I believe it will ultimately take you to a better place with better knowledge, skills, creativity, and empathy. “
leap
For some, layoffs will result in them becoming freelance. For others, it means building something bigger. Gemma Eccleston, managing director of Hendrix Rose PR, had been working at her previous firm for ten years when her role was put at risk. For a young child, this news was terrifying. But she chose voluntary redundancy and invested the proceeds in starting her own agency.
“Taking that risk actually left me in a stronger financial position than I would have been in-house, and the sense of motivation and reward that comes from building something of my own is incredible,” she said.
Her advice to others? “Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. It can be daunting, but sometimes these moments can open doors to opportunities you may have never considered.”
Practical wisdom is hard-won
Vicki Lovegrove, director of Seventy Three Design, was fired more than 20 years ago, and her advice is downright practical. “Sign up for benefits: you deserve it,” she urged. “Give yourself a business nemesis. I was really angry at my boss, so I made him my imaginary business nemesis. It helped channel that anger.
“Don’t spend all your freelance money at once,” she continues. “Keep a spare jar for taxes and a few quiet months. Let go of the shame: Your situation was not your choice, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Tell people what’s going on; otherwise, how will they know how to reach out? Cry if you need to.”
what happens next
Not everyone can clearly review redundancy. Some people are still sending applications to the void, still waiting, still wondering. This is a fact and should be made clear.
But if the stories collected here illustrate anything, it’s that creative communities have a remarkable ability to reinvent themselves in the face of adversity. The things we build after the loss of a loved one are often the things we are most proud of.
Sometimes the period is actually a comma drawn in the wrong place to point to a better place.
