AIO for being depressed after being layed off?
Not like clinically depressed btw, just generally sad and low motivated for the time being.
I was layed off by my job today. I really liked my job, it was fine, I've worked there for almost 2 years. Of course I had my problems with it, but nothing that I wouldn't have against any other job, mostly just that I don't like working for 40 hours a week or having to wake up early to go to work at 8am, but I do like having money and more time in the evening to do things so not much I can do about that. I was starting to get kinda burnt out at my job, but I had like 100 hours of PTO saved, so I was going to start being way more liberal with that.
The lay off was sudden too, I hadn't heard literally anything about it until I was being told to pack up my things not even an hour after I arrived at work today.
The thing is, my roommate is saying I'm being over dramatic for wanting to stay in my room and be sad all day and not doing chores/projects for today. In her eyes, it's not even that bad i lost my job. I was layed off because the department is downsizing company wide, not because a personal reason. I also get four weeks payed at my usual salary as if I'm working my 40 hours even though I'm not actually working. I could potentially get transferred to another location and/or another department, but I don’t like the other jobs at my company, all the other departments have blades and ovens that I'm terrified of or are way more boring/monotonous or stressful/demanding than my old position. There's a reason I've never tried to change positions. Not to mention like three departments company wide are downsizing so theres going to be a lot of competition for jobs that aren't even that good. She also says unemployment will set me up and let me keep on cruising, she says I can even go back to school and get a degree in something. I don’t live paycheck to paycheck either, I have a good amount of savings.
I know that I am generally pretty well off and I'm grateful for it, but I still feel this whole situation just sucks! I hate the economy and the job market and the stupid president and the uncertainty of literally everything after these four paid weeks are up. I dont want a new job, I want the comfort and stability that my old job had before it got ripped away from me. That job was only like 10% soul crushing, which is way better than every other job that I've ever had in my life. I was supposed to teach a class at work tomorrow that was confirmed to still be happening a week ago when I checked, this literally came out of nowhere. I used to fantasize about what it'd be like to get those "5 years at the company" wooden name tags, I really loved working there, yet I'd also fantasize about asked if I could only work like 20 hours a week while doing side hustles to supplement my income because at the end of the day it's a job that I only worked for because of capitalism. I longed for more free time, but not like this.
I just got a raise recently due to the union, and another raise due to time spent with the company. I was looking at the calendar planning things out for my perfect attendance award I would have gotten in like two more months. I was thinking about the upcoming yearly zoo trip the company does and how fun that would be. I planned my future around having this job with me indefinitely and now what.
I don't know what I'm going to do, and I don’t want to do anything but lay in my bed and doomscroll and tell everyone I lost my job, but my roommate thinks I should be more grateful for my situation. I have started looking for a new job already, but doing so makes me really sad and makes me want to cry so I gave up on that. Even from my 10 minute job search, my email and ads are now flooded with "trying to find a job? Check this out" type ads and I hate it. I hate being layed off so much.
Am I overreacting? How many days of wallowing do you think would be normal here?
Posted Feb 18, 2026, 2:23 AM UTC