All the Cool Girls Get Fired: What to Do When a Layoff Hits After 40

Layoffs can feel like a punch to the gut, especially when you’ve spent 20+ years climbing the ladder, playing by the rules, and building a career you’re proud of. But as Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neill remind us in their new book: “All the Cool Girls Get Fired,” getting let go isn’t a sign of failure. It’s a sign that the world is changing, and you’re being handed an opportunity to change with it.

Both women had dream jobs as editor-in-chiefs of InStyle and WSJ. Magazine, respectively. And then…they got laid off. In their 40s. With no backup plan. But what they discovered, and what they shared with Jean Chatzky this week on the HerMoney podcast, is that a layoff doesn’t have to be the end of the story. It can be the beginning of your most powerful chapter yet.

Here’s what they want every woman to know.

A Layoff Doesn’t Mean You Did Anything Wrong

Jean Chatzky: Why do you think it’s so hard for us to talk about this topic?

Kristina O’Neill: Well, we don’t have a lot of fired role models. I think, as women, we haven’t really grown up with a lot of leaders and women in prominent positions who’ve been through it. These are certainly not the stories that we tell ourselves, our daughters, our peers, so we hope to change that, just to not encourage the stigma and encourage the shame any longer. That has to end now.

Laura Brown: I got up to this rung, and it took me so much longer, and it was harder, and I was paid less, and all those sorts of things. So when you’re knocked off it the landing is rougher. But the shame thing, all of our lives, we’re working towards having agency and being able to choose. What so many women do is choose shame. No one’s paying attention to your specific deal forever. Don’t bring that heavy weight onto yourself when you’ve already been hit on the head by an anvil, by losing your job.

Don’t Sign Anything Right Away 

Jean Chatzky: The day you are fired, you talk about negotiating a severance package and not signing anything. What do you do instead?

Kristina O’Neill: In the moment, a lot of people who are in corporate jobs are pushed a packet of paper and given this deadline, and they want you to wrap it up immediately. You need to take the time to step away from the table, or to step away from the Zoom, and really process the paperwork. Some people do reach out to lawyers, or whatever type of counsel you need or want to seek; we recommend doing that. 

In terms of negotiation, it doesn’t always have to be about money, right? For some people, healthcare might become the thing that they are most concerned about. Others negotiate retraining benefits. And some people negotiate to take equipment or whatever the company software, hardware, whatever it is, for you to do your job, all of those things can be put on the table. 

Laura Brown: And make some asks because what are they going to do? They already fired you.

Build Your Cool Girl Network

Jean Chatzky: You all are starting a movement. The Cool Girl network is a thing. How does that happen?

Laura Brown: Number one, the fact that you said it was a movement is just music to our ears. We knew that from when we posted on Instagram, “All the cool girls get fired.” And from the women who showed up in the comments and said, ‘Oh, actually me.’ Women writing to us and going, actually, this is the first time I’ve said I was fired, and sort of unburdening themselves. We do feel like we want to revolutionize this narrative.

We don’t want women who work so hard to feel like this ever again. It’s changing this narrative and owning everything that happens to us and owning our own experience. And that opens up such a wider world for a more fulfilling life, personally and professionally.

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MORE ON HERMONEY:

• What To Do If You’re Worried About a Layoff
• How to Frame a Layoff After a Short-Lived Gig
• Is “Quiet Thriving” the new “Quiet Quitting?” With Erica Keswin

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