Think of businesses like a lawnmower. It’ll cut your feet as happily as it cuts grass.

Wear protective shoes and never trust it.

Remember, if you got fired, you might have fucked up or failed (might, still not guaranteed). If you got laid off, then your boss' boss or C Suite fucked up. They made bad decisions and the business revenue didn't show up as they predicted, and you're just paying the price instead of them. So try not to sweat it, and recognize that unlike the 70s, a lot of companies now plan to grow aggressively and layoff at the first sign of danger.

Hopefully you got a severance large enough to give you a bit of breathing room while you look for another job without too much stress

It took me a while, but I eventually realized that I'm not defined by my job, and I have such a rich fulfilling life outside of it, or I at least have the opportunity to build one. Once I stopped defining myself through my job, I was a lot happier and more motivated to just find another job and not worry about whether it's something that a stranger would find impressive, since I'd be talking to them about other aspects of my life now anyway.

Lawyer up.

Quit facebook.

Hit the gym.

But honestly, this is good advice. Consult a lawyer about your layoff to ensure you were given appropriate entitlements and severenace. Apply for EI and make sure your bills and responsibilities are being paid for.

Don't jump to social media and declare "I'm open to work", because that will bring the sharks. Reach out to your network instead, and see if anyone has something you'd be a good fit for, and would be excited to pursue.

And keep yourself a good routine. Get a daily workout, or walk or something in, to keep sane.

You got this. You are not your job. Your next job will come along.

Take some time, be with friends, and realize that it's probably not your fault. You have just been taught a valuable lesson about the relationship between employers and employees: They only care about the value you can provide to the company and will cut you loose the minute you cost more than you provide.
You should view them the same way. You trade them your time and knowledge for value (money and benefits). If you can get more value for your time and knowledge, lay them off and go with a higher value employer.

Got laid off. Took them to court for unlawful firing. Won a settlement.

Feelings-wise, I never felt like failure, because all my hate is for the capitalistic system that produces such outcomes. Almost everyone goes through this at least at one point in their lives. While sometimes being fired is of course an individuals fault, it being a traumatic event is society's fault.

In general though, this seems like a question that is completely independent of the circumstances. You simply should never feel like "a failure" because while everyone makes mistakes, no person is ever entirely wrong or a failure. The reason people feel "like a failure" anyway is because of this constant pressure placed on everyone to "succeed" and "achieve" and whatnot. From friends, family, the media, and so on.

There is no easy way to shed this pressure, but it is possible. First you must truly understand the mechanisms at play in all of this, what state you would like to be in, and then it's a lot of practice to remind yourself of these concepts again and again and again.

Therapist. Why has nobody suggested getting a therapist? Go to therapy.

I got laid off when I was 27 and planning a wedding as the primary earner. I was fortunate enough to have savings to get us through till my next job, but that took about 6 months. Its scary, but my advice would be to focus on yourself for a few weeks if you have the financial means to. I dont mean spend a lot of money or go on vacation, but maybe get started on your job profiles and resumes and apply here and there, but also just take time to process and grieve. Go for a walk or a drive and see the world during the day. Play some games or something or work on that fun project you never had time to before.

For me, it was around the time Tears of the Kingdom came out, and zelda is one of my favorite franchises. I would wake up play some Zelda, apply for jobs online for an bour or two, play some Zelda, make dinner for my wife and hang out until she went to bed, then play some Zelda some more.

There's no "correct" amount of time to be out of a job. I've seen people get hired within weeks, but I've also seen people go for mo tha or even years. It's all a process, but like other people said, your job does not define you and you did nothing wrong.

Don't take it personally. It's just a job, the quicker you move on the better. If any mistakes were made take it as a lesson. If not, don't worry about it, for most companies you are just a number in an excel sheet.

If you can, don't rush it, and take your time to clear your thoughts before looking for a new job. Then go for it.

Good luck!

I just move on and look for other job.

I became a communist

I can say that drinking about it definitely doesn't help

Make art

Not your fault. Companies only care about money so they get rid of employees as soon as they can. Sorry that happened though. Hopefully you got decent severance, and don't forget to claim unemployment benefits.

I chose additional time with friends, and vices in the past. Worked well.

I went on a road trip to Vancouver Island and found a new job there and the layoff ended up being the best thing to ever happen to me

Companies' decisions to hire and fire people are not personal, they're just business. They need X number of workers for a set of tasks, they hire them. They no longer need that many, they fire them. It's a purely economic decision. Talent and experience are not even much of a factor.

Don't blame yourself. Don't take it as a measure of personal worth. We're all kind of at the mercy of the market for our labor.

A failure? What's that even mean? Do we measure our success by how useful a specific capitalist organization finds us at any given moment? You aren't a failure. You are just another person trying to make ends meet and getting screwed over by the system. Doing the best you can like anyone else.

Here's a checklist:

Can you pay your bills for the next 6 months? If no, figure out how to fix that ASAP.

Do you know what you want to do next? If no, start pondering on it.

Have you taken advantage of any support that is out there for you? Unemployment for example. If no, do it.

If all of those are handled then you are good to take a breath and just figure your shit out. Maybe try to do something you didn't have the time to before. Spend more time with family. Something like that. Whatever it is that would make you happy right now.

Maybe it just wasn't a good fit, which is fine. People don't always fit into the job they take and being let go gives you the ability to find something new.