After the Layoff: Talking Through Losing Your Job With an AI

Tomas was let go on a Tuesday, in a fifteen-minute video call, along with a third of his team. He is a composite, not anyone’s chat, but the six weeks that followed have a shape that people who have lost a job will recognise. At each stage he talked to a different one of Fellowi’s AI psychologists, and each is written to do something different. Here is what that looked like, and where it stopped.

The first evening: Leo, and no plan at all

That night Tomas did not want advice. He wanted to say, several times and in stronger words, that it was unfair. Leo, the general-support psychologist, is written for exactly this: he lets you vent first, reflects back the main feeling (here, less anger than humiliation, at being told in a group call), and only then offers a choice: keep talking, look at what happened, or pick one small step. Tomas chose to keep talking. That was allowed.

Leo is also told not to act like a best friend or the only one who understands you. Near the end of the conversation he asked who else knew. Tomas had not told his sister yet. He called her the next morning.

The first week: Daniel and the money loop

By Friday the shock had turned into arithmetic at two in the morning: rent, savings, how many months. The thought ran in a loop and ended every time at losing the flat. Daniel, the psychologist for anxiety and stress, works calmly and predictably on purpose. He helped Tomas separate the facts (two months of pay to come, savings for three more) from the anxious assumption (nobody will hire him and he will be on the street by spring), and then the things he could control from the ones he could not.

He also asked about the body: the tight chest, the bad sleep. He suggested slow breathing and writing the night thought down with one alternative explanation next to it, without promising that either would stop the worry. When sleep stays broken for weeks, the psychologists are told to recommend a professional rather than another late chat. Money worries at night goes further on the money side.

The second week: Sofia and the voice that says it was you

A third of the team went, and still the sentence in Tomas’s head was “they kept the good ones”. Sofia, the psychologist for self-esteem and boundaries, works on that inner critic and on unrealistic standards. She is written not to hand out empty compliments either, so she did not tell him he was brilliant. She asked what he would say to a colleague in the same call, and what the evidence was for “good ones” when the cut followed a budget, not a review.

Then she asked him to list three pieces of work from the last two years that he would still put his name to. That list became the start of his CV. Building confidence through conversation has more of this kind of work.

The fourth week: Adrian and the empty tab

By the fourth week Tomas had a job board open in a browser tab every day and had applied for nothing. He told himself he was “researching”. Adrian, the psychologist with the direct style, is written to notice exactly this gap between intention and action, and to ask before he says it: “Do you want me to tell you what I notice here?” Tomas said yes. Adrian pointed out, without any harshness, that every plan Tomas described began next week.

He did not push for a big decision. He asked for one small, testable step with a way to tell whether it helped: two applications by Thursday, and a note afterwards on how it felt. It felt bad, and then less bad. The tab got used.

The sixth week: Marcus and the first interview

When an interview came, the question Tomas dreaded was “why did you leave?” Marcus, the psychologist for career, work stress and impostor syndrome, is practical and structured. He helped Tomas look at the longer view as well as the coming days, including a plan for exploring the job market without burning through savings, and he is told never to encourage ignoring the financial side. He helped Tomas find a short, true answer about the layoff that did not sound like an apology.

Then Tomas rehearsed it out loud with a companion playing the interviewer, which is what rehearsing a job interview with AI describes, until the answer came out the same way three times running. If the question under all of this is whether you are in the right field at all, burnout and career doubt is the longer read.

Severance, contracts and benefits

Some of the hardest questions after a layoff are legal and financial: is the severance fair, what does the contract say, what support can you claim and when. The psychologists do not give legal or financial advice as professional advice, and none of them can read your contract and tell you what you are owed. What they can do is help you write down your questions and take them to someone who can answer them: an employment adviser, a lawyer, a union rep or your local benefits office.

What it remembers

The psychologists do not keep automatic memories. They save a small note, such as the three pieces of work on Tomas’s list, only after asking and hearing a clear yes; what the psychologists remember has the details. The messages themselves are stored, as your chat dataexplains, so leave out what does not need to be there: your former employer’s internal details, your salary slips, your contract.

What it cannot do

It cannot find you a job, check your CV against a real hiring process, or tell you what an employer will decide. It cannot give legal, financial or medical advice, and it is an AI, not a licensed professional. It does not replace the people who matter most in these weeks: the friend who sends you a listing, the former colleague who gives a reference, a career adviser, a doctor if the sleep and the mood do not come back. If losing your job has left you with thoughts of harming yourself, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line now; a companion is told to point you to real help, but there is no crisis service behind it. The broader limits are in the limits of AI support.

Where to find them

Leo, Daniel, Sofia, Adrian and Marcus are on the psychologists’ page; what you can open without paying, and what each plan adds, is on the product page. You do not have to start at the right stage. Tomas started with “it is unfair”, and that was the right place.