Laid off? Share the pain

The outpouring moved Mernit. It differed starkly from the isolation she felt after being laid off by AOL four years ago. At the time, she lived on the East Coast, had fewer ties to the tech community and did not blog. But shared values and interests and her popular blog have united her with a broad community that closed ranks around her when she needed it.

"It was a very positive affirmation of my standing . . . of the support of the work I have done and of my reputation," she said. "It definitely helped me feel better about the layoff."

Like Mernit, Kuder is treating the job loss as an opportunity to start over, perhaps in brand marketing for a start-up instead of an Internet giant. Recording observations of his final day at Yahoo helped him cope and move on, he said.

"I have gone back a couple of times to look at my tweets from that day to remember what happened," he said. "When you read coverage of layoffs, you don't recognize these are people with kids, families, who are going through a big change. This puts a human face on it."

jessica.guynn@latimes.com