One of the first story ideas I wanted to do for La Fronde was talk to women about why they've stopped looking for a stable nine-to-five media job. I know so many former coworkers and friends who've given up on climbing the career ladder for a whole host of reasons. The main theme that connects all their stories: They're just really fucking exhausted.

A lot of those people were with me in the trenches during the Girlboss era of the late 2000s and early 2010s, where every step up that career ladder felt like 'The Hunger Games.' The promise of what hustling could net all of us at the time — a steady job for life, a clear path to promotions — just didn't really pan out. If anything, the best-case scenario now is trying to dodge layoffs in the media minefield and hope you make it on the other side.

It makes total sense why women are opting out of the workforce at a record rate. For today's paid newsletter, I talked to women who got laid off and made the tough decision to step away from the job market for their own mental health. They don't have the fortune of a secret trust fund or rich partner to fall back on (and if that's your situation, how does it feel to live my dream?). They're still trying to figure out when their next paycheck is in a craptastic economy — but they've found unexpected fulfillment in other ways that a full-time job couldn't give them.

Plus: I asked a trademark lawyer to weigh in on the NOTUS vs. The Washington Star lawsuit (which ended in a settlement), why a new ruling against Workday could be a watershed moment for hiring discrimination cases in media, and how the race to amp up women's sports coverage just got more heated.

Jasely Molina wasn't worried about landing another job when she got laid off from her full-time gig as a digital editor at MasterClass in August 2022. She quickly picked up freelance work and loved the flexibility that came with it. "I'm usually not a nine-to-five girlie," she jokes. But after doing the freelance grind for a while she needed a steadier paycheck, and going back to the workforce ended up being messier than she expected.

"I've applied to so many jobs this year. Over 100, honestly, and that's probably an understatement," says Jasely, who is based in the New York City area.

Jasely's story is something I've heard a lot of laid-off media people experiencing lately, especially women further up the ladder where senior media jobs are already hard to come by. There are some people who decide to stick it out, and then there are others, like Jasely, who are opting out of the job search for the sake of their mental health — and found their footing somewhere else entirely.