1. Yes, my entire group (about 100+ people) were laid off around a year ago 2. Not sure if it affected my search, but I did find a job that I enjoy more and th

1. Yes, my entire group (about 100+ people) were laid off around a year ago 2. Not sure if it affected my search, but I did find a job that I enjoy more and that is less stressful, and I'm much happier now. 3. Not really. I don't worry about stigma, I don't even accept that the stigma in this case exists. Why should it? An entire group of people were laid off, not just me. Because I could afford to, I took six months off before even starting to look for a new position. Aside from also recovering from cancer surgery at the same time, I really enjoyed spending a lot of time with my dog before she died, reading books I'd been meaning to read for ages, and slowly thinking about what I want to do next. It took me a month or so of looking to find a new job.