What To Do When Fired From Job 2021

What To Do When Fired From Job 2021

Being terminated from your job, regardless of the reason can feel devastating, embarrassing, and downright scary. I can assure you there is life after losing a job or being fired. 

So This has happened to you or you think it might. Then stick with me in six steps. I am going to take you through what you need to do and don’t do when you’re fired. How to learn from it and overcome it to positively move forward. Being fired from your job can be a huge hit to your self-esteem, crush your confidence, and leave you feeling anxious about how to move forward. 

Step Number One Stay Calm And Don’t Badmouth Your Employer

Nowadays the social media it can be tempting and for some even habit to share their opinions, emotions, and life happenings and good and bad with the world. Or personal and online social networks.

If you’ve recently been fired, laid off, or terminated regardless of the reason then I first want to caution you against bad-mouthing your former employer publicly. It is completely natural to feel angry, hurt, shocked, resentful, embarrassed, sad, ashamed, worthless, fearful, and absolutely devastated.

There is a myriad of emotions and you’ll likely experience some or all of them to some degree or another. And I suggest you vent with a family member or trusted friend, a counselor, or a career coach, about what happened and how you feel.

Just because you were late going from a job doesn’t mean you’re automatically leaving on bad terms. So try not to burn your bridges by getting overly emotional and yelling at your employer. Most employers will expect you to be upset but maintain your dignity and self-respect by maintaining your calm and rationale.

If you break down and cry. Hay your Human it’s Okay. But try to refrain from getting angry or defensive. Your employer may have been forced to terminate you for a reason beyond their control. It may not be personal but a matter of policy direction from their supervisor or a number of other reasons.

If you feel you’ve been wrongfully treated or that your employer has broken the law and this does happen occasionally. Then I suggest you consult an employment lawyer to see if you have a case for wrongful dismissal.

Step Two Take Some Time To Grieve 

You need to allow yourself some time to process what’s happened to you? Run through a gamut of emotions and decompress from your routine of going to a job every day. But I don’t want you to sit and wallow. If you need to take a few days to hide in your cave and lick your wounds that’s totally Ok. But commit yourself by day three you’re gonna leave the cave. Do some fun things with family and friends, get active, do your favorite hobby or sport. You need to get those positive and endorphins going in your brains so do something fun and positive.

How to get out of all this

You want to avoid falling into a depression. If you’re a highly social and group activity person then go to something fun with friends, go on a group hike, go skiing, go tour some museums or throw together a team and play some football or slow pitch. If you’re more of a lone wolf like me go do something that you enjoy. Where you can recharge your batteries, go kayaking, go on a hike, go feed the ducks at the local park or visit an arcade and blow $20.00 worth of quarters in the pinball machines. If you’re anything like me and I have a need for speed so when I’m stressed I go to the arcade, jump on one of those motorcycles, I drive like crazy. Because the best part is, even if I crashed I can’t get hurt.

Don’t do this things

If you have a tendency to deal with stress through alcohol, gambling, or drugs. Then I really want to encourage you to avoid those types of activities. While they might give you an initial high you know in the long run they will have a negative impact on you. I know you probably think I’m starting to sound like your mother. But as your career coach part of my job is to guide you to make good decisions. That will have a positive impact on your future, your career, and your job search. So I feel a sense of obligation to state the obvious but please know it comes from a place of genuine care.

Step Number Three Put Things In Perspective 

Did you know that the average person holds 12 to 15 different jobs in their lifetime? Remind yourself this is just one job in the big picture of life. There will be others in the future. Getting fired can be scary. It disrupts your life, your finances, and it can add stress at a time when you may already be dealing with stressors that may have contributed to why you’re actually fired in the first place. Getting fired can be traumatic but it can also turn out to be one of the best things that may never happen to you. 

Many of us define ourselves by our career or our job. Let’s face it if we work full time. We spend more time in our jobs than sleeping or spending time with our family or any other activity. So it’s only natural to feel that we are what we do. So it’s easy to see how being fired can have such a devastating impact on our self-worth and how we see ourselves? But being fired doesn’t define you. Being fired can lead to bigger and better opportunities you may not have otherwise been open to or aware of. 

Step Number Four Self-assess to Determine What Went Wrong

Whether you’re fired for just cause or not it’s good to have a clear understanding of where things went wrong. If you were fired for performance issues, reflect and ask yourself some hard questions. This is not about blame and not about making you feel bad. This is about figuring out what the cause was.

Perhaps you aren’t cut out for this type of work capability wise or you were promoted into a position that was above your skillset. If you love that type of work then maybe you need to pursue some more training. Or maybe you just don’t have the personality for the job.

Ask yourself things like.

• Did my attitude change? 
• Did I  stop carrying? 
• Was my heart not in it?
• Did I not like the job/duties/responsibilities?
• Did I not like my team/manager/coworkers?
• Was I resenting something or someone to work with? And why?
• Were the requirements of the job above my skills and abilities?
• Should I obtain for the training or education for this? 
• What would I do differently if in this position again? 

Example Story

I’d like to share a story with you about a past client of mine. Who came to me after being fired. For the second time in a row from a management job.

Michelle told me why he thought he was fired? And what reason her employer gives her? Which wasn’t much. As his career coach, I was able to ask her former employer directly for feedback. In order to provide him with more helpful guidance. He also provided and copies of his previous performance reviews which provided some great insight.

When I learned from the employer the reviews and from Michelle who was in her late 30s was enlightening. She’d been hired into a management position with a team of approximately 12 women reporting to her. All of whom had been with the company for more than 25 years. Putting most of them in their mid-fifties.

Michelle tried to implement some new and innovative ideas into the department but fortunately, she was met with resistance. By most of the seasoned team were not open to her proposed changes. There were some personality conflicts particularly from one of the employees who applied for her role and was denied it. Because her team of 12 have worked together for more than two decades they banded together against her as the new manager.

Could Michelle have approached things differently in trying to implement change and possibly? But based on my impression I don’t think she stood much of a chance regardless. What was interesting was ironically Michelle was put in a very similar situation in her previous job. That she was also fired for basically the same reason. Michelle had completely lost his confidence in managing people after this. So together we determined alternative career paths she could pursue. Where Michelle could utilize her degree, her skills, and experience and yet find something where he could feel fulfilled, confident, and be able to contribute.

I retargeted her resume and taught her how to approach potential new employers and how to answer the questions of why you were fired? Within four months she attended several interviews and was shortlisted into the final two candidates for times. Received two job offers and accepted the one she wanted most. Michelle accepted a business development role where she no longer supervises people. She gets to utilizes her business economics degree and she no longer has to commute an hour and a half to her job which made her husband and children very happy.

Conclusion

I checked in with him about six months into her new career and she was loving it. She was making more money than in her past role and she had a better work-life balance for her family. So, what was at one time a traumatic experience for this woman in being fired turned out to be one of the best things that could happen to her. 

Step Five Get Feedback From Others 

By reflecting, assessing, and trying to gather honest feedback from your former employer, co-workers, reporting staff, and maybe even some customers or clients you worked closely with. You may discover that you have areas you can improve on. Whether it be your style of approach in dealing with others, your attitude, or perhaps you’re lacking a particular skill that you can improve on with further training.

When you may also discover that you just aren’t in a line of work that suits your natural aptitudes, interests, skills, or personality. So, now might be the time to explore alternatives and figure out what your dream job is? If you decide to ask others for feedback you need to be open and listen. Don’t get defensive, argue, contradict, or start blaming someone else. Just listen and take notes.

This is about gallery helpful information not defending what you think or what you did or didn’t do. If you start offending, blaming, or arguing the person will shut down and you’ll lose out on the chance to learn what you probably need to know. Thank each person for their honesty and feedback and don’t hold it against them if they told you something you didn’t really want to hear. Once you gather feedback from several sources, look for any themes or similarities in what they’ve told you. Acknowledge it and research ways to either work on improving those witnesses or find ways to avoid those scenarios in the future. 

Step number Six Make An Action Plan.

Now that you’ve taken some time to grieve the process, obtain feedback, and determine what went wrong. It’s time to make a plan to start moving forward. I recommend making an action plan for yourself. This will help you set goals and objectives and things you need to do to start moving forward in a positive direction. To find your new and fulfilling job or career. 

I hope today’s steps help you overcome being terminated from your job and help you start to move forward in a positive way.