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Given all the uncertainty about the economy these days, it’s perhaps no surprise that companies in just about every industry have been downsizing and letting employees go. Some, like Amazon, over-hired during the COVID-19 pandemic and must now scale down. Some, like Facebook, made a series of bad strategic bets on the future of social media, and must now pay the consequences. And still others are simply being whipsawed by all the fears of inflation, recession and now bank runs.
But what do you say on social media if you’ve been a victim of these layoffs? Before the era of social media, telling the world about your plight in a public manner would have been unthinkable. But now that we are so used to telling others every detail of our lives on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, it’s no surprise that some people are sharing details of their layoffs on social media. If you are thinking of doing the same, here are a few rules of the road.
What to say on social media if you’ve been laid off
After a layoff, you may be feeling a swirling mass of emotions. So be careful about sharing too much all at once. Instead, say experts, it’s best to lead off with a “soft” announcement. This is especially the case if the company you formerly worked for is still making headlines in the news. This will give you time to piece together your various emotions, so that you can determine the next steps in your career.
Keep it short
Along the same lines, it’s best to keep any description of your layoff short and simple. At a maximum, a few paragraphs of text should suffice. Keeping it short ensures that you don’t spend too much time blaming others, or too much time airing your various grievances and concerns.
Stay positive
It can be difficult to maintain a positive mindset during a time of layoffs, but you don’t want to go negative early. The more positive you are, the more likely it is that someone in your social network will be willing to help you out later.
Utilize popular hashtags
Layoffs have become so commonplace that there are actually popular hashtags to help your social posts gain the widest possible audience. One popular hashtag, for example, is #openforwork, which essentially makes it socially acceptable for someone to approach you with a potential job opening. At the same time, this hashtag is so useful because it shows you’re not panicking at the idea of losing your job.
Be consistent across different social media platforms
Finally, make sure that you are sharing a consistent message across every social media platform. In other words, you don’t want your content on Twitter to be completely unrecognizable from the content you are posting on a platform like LinkedIn.
This might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at just how jarring it can be when a potential employer finds out “how you really think” about your previous job when they check out your Twitter or Facebook posts. Remember – employers are now checking your social media content as part of the hiring process.
At the end of the day, sharing details about your layoff on social media can be therapeutic and might help you adjust to the new reality. But just be careful about oversharing, because you never know who might be reading this content later.
