You lost your job. Not just income—your routine, your identity, your sense of stability. ILTY is here for the shock, the shame, and everything after.
One meeting. That's all it took. Fifteen minutes and your entire routine, income, identity, and sense of stability vanished. You walked out with a box or a disconnected laptop, and now you're sitting in your apartment at 11am on a Tuesday wondering what just happened.
The shock comes first. Then the shame—even though you know layoffs aren't personal, it feels personal. You replay every meeting, every project, every interaction looking for signs you missed. Your brain constructs a narrative where this is your fault, because at least that gives you some control.
Then comes the identity crisis. In a culture where "what do you do?" is the first question at every party, losing your job feels like losing your answer. Who are you without the title, the team, the purpose, the place to be every morning?
Everyone says to start applying immediately. Network. Update the resume. But you're in shock and grief, and nobody acknowledges that a layoff is a loss that needs processing before you can move forward effectively. ILTY provides that space.
You're in a fog. Nothing feels real. ILTY helps you acknowledge what just happened instead of immediately pivoting to "what's next" before you're ready.
You know it's not your fault. It still feels like it is. Talk through the shame openly so it doesn't become the lens through which you see everything.
You lost colleagues, routine, purpose, and stability. That's grief. Let yourself feel it instead of skipping to the job search.
You are not your job title. But when the title is gone, figuring out who you are without it is real work. ILTY helps you reconnect with your identity beyond employment.
Bills, health insurance, the job market, the gap on your resume. The practical anxieties are real. Process them so they don't paralyze you.
We want to be clear about our limitations:
There's no timeline. Some people bounce back in weeks. For others, the identity and confidence impact lasts months. It depends on how central the job was to your sense of self, your financial situation, and what else is going on in your life. Give yourself permission to process at your own pace.
Knowing something intellectually and feeling it emotionally are completely different things. The shame is normal—our culture ties worth to productivity, and losing a job triggers deep feelings of inadequacy regardless of the circumstances. Acknowledging the shame is the first step to moving through it.
Not necessarily. If finances allow, giving yourself even a few days to process the shock can prevent you from job searching from a place of desperation and shame. The applications you send from a grounded place will be better than the ones sent in panic. That said, do the practical things—file for unemployment, understand your severance, check your health insurance options.
ILTY is free during beta. Start a conversation and see if it helps with what you're going through.