In 2026, layoffs no longer make the news. Every week, there’s a corporate restructuring, an AI-led transformation, another round of polite emails that begin with “After careful consideration…” Chin up. Getting laid off isn’t a dirty secret anymore. It’s a career subplot.
We spoke to two women who’ve sat in that HR call, and came out stronger: Amulya Veldanda Vadali, 29, a New Jersey-based biomedical engineer and author of The Art of Being Let Go; and Priyanka Mahankali, 34, career advisor and host of The Early Career Podcast. They tell us how to stay calm, regain your footing and carry on.
First, pause. Your instinct is to fix it immediately. Update CV. Rewrite LinkedIn headline. Apply to 47 jobs before dinner. But you’ve just experienced a big loss, financially and emotionally. Give yourself a week to process it. If you can afford more time, take it.
Vadali was let go last February, when her biotech company restructured. The shock was immediate. Next came denial, anger, grief. She writes about it with humour now, but it took time to get there. “People always feel like they did something wrong and that’s why they got laid off,” she says. But mass layoffs aren’t personal. Companies aren’t individually re-evaluating your vibes. They’re cutting budgets, slashing divisions, responding to market cycles. When the self-doubt got loud, “I just wrote down the things that I know I am good at. It reminded me that I have a lot of skills, and that I’ll be fine.”
Remember, you are not your job. Layoffs trigger shame. “What will I tell people?” “What will my relatives say?” “Where did I mess up?” Vadali says there’s nothing to be ashamed of. But frame your update well. If you announce it like a disaster, people respond like it’s one. If you frame it as a transition, they follow your lead. “Our job should be the least important or least interesting thing about us.” Make sure your life has other anchors, such as family, friends, hobbies, volunteering and travel, so you don’t feel that you have lost your identity, along with your job.
Build a routine. The most dangerous phase isn’t Week One. It’s Week Three. Without meetings, deadlines, calendar invites, the days start to blur. Next thing you know, you’re bingeing Bridgerton until 4pm.
Mahankali had spent over eight years at a big tech company in Toronto before mass tech layoffs hit and she was let go. Routine kept her going. “Even if you’re doing nothing, have a routine for doing nothing. Waking up at the same time, showering, changing out of pyjamas and going for a walk,” she says.
Find the silver lining. Mahankali had a bag of green tea sitting at home for months, untouched because she was always too busy to brew some. “Now, I could just sit on my balcony with the tea and enjoy it.” For Vadali, it was her health. “So, I started to exercise and go for long walks.”
Layoffs often force the self-reflection we’ve been postponing, says Mahankali. Questions such as: Did I even like that job? Was I growing? Is this aligned with where I want to go? Getting laid off gave Vadali time to pursue her writing. It gave Mahankali the time to launch a podcast she’d been delaying for two years. “This might be the window to do that certification you kept bookmarking. Take an AI course. Upskill in your field,” she says.
When you’re ready, reach out. Once the dust settles, make a list of former colleagues, clients, mentors, senior leaders and friends in adjacent industries, says Mahankali. “If you’re not active on LinkedIn, you should be.” Yes, it can feel cringe. But do it anyway. “Take all the help you can get.” And when you do find another job, Vadali says, “Think of it as just a chapter, where the goal is really to learn and grow as much as possible. Layoffs will come and go. Don’t see them as ‘oh I gave my whole life to this job and they laid me off’. Instead, see it as ‘I extracted this use out of that job, and now it’s over’.”
