u/ok-intruder

We all know AI has slopified both copywriting & the job market. But I feel that things have really taken a turn this year.

I consider myself a top performer & in-demand talent. I’ve been working in-house since 2019, make six figures, have an advanced title, etc. Before 2026, I would get contacted by recruiters a couple times a year, the roles would be ones I was a very good fit for, I could basically take my pick on whether to move on or stay in my current role. Great!

Extremely long story extremely short: I’m unemployed now & living off a settlement after my most recent employer illegally fired me (medical leave retaliation). I’m dreading trying to find a new copywriting job & I haven’t even started yet. I somehow get contacted by recruiters now more than ever, but it’s for roles I’m massively overqualified for, or the jobs aren’t even copywriting jobs. I haven’t gotten an interview by applying to a job listings since 2023. (Does anyone find jobs this way anymore, particularly for copywriting?)

I’m strongly considering some sort of career pivot. Not sure to what yet. But maybe I’m just feeling burnout from a toxic work environment, & maybe I shouldn’t give up on my career so quickly?

Thoughts? I have a financial advisor & will be meeting with him soon to talk through my options, so it would be helpful to hear perspective from my industry peers.

Had a meeting with our head of HR this morning to discuss a work-related injury. She also probed into my performance and my culture-fit. I provided evidence like performance metrics to back myself up. She asked me if I’d consider leaving to focus on my health & I said no.

Yesterday I requested time off for the injury. I also conveyed I may need accommodations for treatment.

The conversation was not supportive and gave me the impression that they are looking to fire me.

What should I expect next?

Trying to keep this short:

Over the past six months, I have been repeatedly mischaracterized by a coworker (ranks at my manager’s rank but not my manager). This feedback is damaging to my reputation and false.

Initially I was accused of not completing work when I did. My then-manager relayed this feedback & I responded with evidence. We resolved the issue and moved on.

But now I have a new manager & it’s happening again. Now this coworker is saying I’m not completing work to specific guidelines when I did. I spoke about this with my new manager but she’s has worked at the company less than 2 months & this false characterizations are damaging my relationship with her.

Is this something I should take to HR or is there a different action I should take first?

Note that this is a remote job. Headquarters is in Orlando, FL.

This is mostly just venting but I’m open to advice if anyone has it.

Our family: me (scapegoat), older sister (golden child), eMom & nDad. I went no contact with my dad over a decade ago and have healed/grown/accomplished a lot.

My sister is an alcoholic/drug addict who continues to live a very spoiled life. She’s never had to buy a car on her own. Her first and second houses were bought by her inlaws. She’s been bailed out of every bad situation in her life, including multiple drunk driving incidents.

She hasn’t worked in three years. Her husband does pretty much everything for her and their very young child. Their kid (my nephew) is going to reap the effects of an unavailable mother for years to come.

My sister was in the hospital for alcohol abuse on mother’s day. Her kid gave her a book he made in school, “all about my mom,” that said things like “my mom is good at sleeping” and “my mom hates when her tummy hurts.” Basically, no normal mom stuff.

He doesn’t know it because he’s so young, but he held up a mirror to her. I thought it would be a kick in the ass to do better. But she’s not. She’s doubling down on not doing anything and asking everyone for help (including me) because she’s “sick.” (I realize addiction is a sickness but, again, hard for me to have empathy when she apparently was drinking less than 48 hours after being discharged from the hospital, where they told her she would literally die if she didn’t stop.)

I’ve had to set boundaries with her for reasons that are probably implicit/obvious. I’ve talked about her in therapy a lot. This week, my therapist asked me if I felt any empathy for my sister, and the answer is no. Whenever I try to feel anything, all I feel is anger.

My mom and I have talked about her a lot lately. My mom recognizes how she’s enabled my sister’s behavior and is also putting up boundaries. And now my sister is playing the victim over that, claiming that our mom doesn’t like her anymore, and using that as ammunition to get me to babysit.

Typing this all out, I am actually wondering if she’s not just an adult golden child, but a narcissist herself.

My sister is smart and creative. In the past, she was a very kind person. She had ambition. Now it just feels like she’s competing with her kid to see who can be taken care of more.

We’ve talked about staging an intervention but … idk. There’s gotta be a lot going on in her marriage; her husband simultaneously enables her and is enraged by her. I think he may leave her soon (if it were my spouse, I would). If that happens, I’m doubtful my sister will take care of herself. She’ll probably move in with family and get worse.

Anyone here left the stability of a full-time copywriting job to pursue something more personally meaningful? How did it work out? What advice would you give yourself if you could go back & do it again?

The most obvious pivot here is becoming a full-time consultant, but I'm interested to hear other paths.

For example: an old coworker of mine with a film background quit editing UGC ads to make documentaries. Another moved overseas & does copy direction on a freelance basis for clients all over the world.

What's your version of that?