INTRODUCTION:
Hello Workplace Warriors, welcome to another post. I stopped by today, just for a short time, to talk to you about something that a lot of people probably don’t talk about often. And I can understand why, but it’s a part of resetting your mindset and the way that you think about things. That topic is getting fired from a job.
Some people, when they get fired from their job, fall totally to pieces and they have a really, really hard time picking those pieces back up, gathering themselves, and brushing themselves off and pushing on through the journey. Well, I’m here to tell you, and to hopefully encourage you, that getting fired from a job should not mean the end of your career. In fact, I want to motivate you to be determined to not let it be the end of your career.
REASONS:
A couple of things could be happening…
One possibility is that you could be on a job that is not a right fit for you. We sometimes accept a job just to have one because we fear that, we may not get another offer soon.
MY STORY:
I remember back during the 2008/2009 financial crisis, I lost my job. It was a contract Human Resources Professional job paying very, very well. And, because I was a contract employee, and the agency that I was working for was going through a lot of budget cuts, the decision was made to eliminate all non-permanent positions immediately. So, I lost that job. The blessing was that the agency identified some unencumbered funds that allowed them to extend my assignment for about two months to avoid letting me go during the holidays. And I think they told me that I would be losing my job in November. I was very grateful for that, but then once my last day came, I was left basically with no income.
I was out of work for almost nine months. I went from almost an $80,000+ a year job to unemployment. And for those of you who have ever been on unemployment, you know that the maximum weekly benefit here in Georgia, at that time, was $250 per week. So, that amount is nothing compared to well over $1,600 per week. So I understand the pain. I’m not talking theory here. I am speaking from real life experience. I was out of work for 9 months. It was difficult having a 1 year old to provide for, but it still brought some blessings. Although I had never had the desire to be a stay-at-home mom, I did experience mommy guilt about leaving my baby at daycare. So, the blessing from the layoff afforded me nine months to spend quality time with my baby. By the time that I went back to work, he was two years old. I would not give that time up for anything. It was so much fun seeing him grow and develop and bonding with him even stronger.
I finally landed a job that paid $30,000 less than what I earned on my last job before. I accepted so that we could once again be a two-income household and because my husband’s job had had also been reduced to part time. And they not only reduced his hours to part-time to the extent that he no longer qualified for the regular employee benefits. So, he had to enroll us in a plan that was basically COBRA. Subsequently, the cost of our benefits increased from $400+ per month to well over $800 per month. So as you can imagine, we needed the second paycheck coming in.
As we all know, though, Hindsight is 20/20. The job that I accepted, it was in a toxic work environment where employees were not treated very well. It was a call center, and I don’t know how many of you are familiar with call centers, but they have very stringent KPIs. And I felt that they were running great employees away because of these KPIs. And you wouldn’t imagine how many write-ups I had o come across my desk every day or approval. So that was stressful to deal with. And don’t get me wrong. I believe in a high level of performance. I believe in complying with policies and just adhering to company culture. But that was just a very stressful environment for me. An early indication, not the first indication, was when my director at the time, told me that she thought the job was not what I expected. She was based at another location, so I only saw her maybe once every week or two. so that conversation was eye-opening. I stayed at that job because I got the paycheck and we got nice discounts and other perks. But I learned that wasn’t all that mattered.
The job was so stressful that it sent me into thyroid storm and developed Graves’ disease. There would be mornings that I would wake up and my joints would hurt so badly that I just wanted to bury my head back in the pillow. But I knew I had to get up and go to work, try and help with supporting the family because the economic situation was just starting to kind of turn around. And I just thought it would be crazy for me to leave a job that I had. I didn’t have the energy to apply for other jobs. So what I did was kept pushing and just kept putting up with a job that just was not enjoyable or fulfilling for me.
I never did say anything to my management, because they’d already let so many people go that I, even being in HR, I was a little afraid because I’d already been laid off during the height of the recession. Here I had finally landed a job after about eight+ months and I didn’t want to find myself out of work again. But guess what? Fate took its turn and here I was…out of a job again. Yeah, at the time it hurt a lot. We are all human and there is nothing wrong with having feelings and being concerned about how we’re going to support, help support our families because we love them and we want the best for them and for ourselves. I called my husband. Then, I called my mom and she told me to pull off on the side of the road and calm down, wipe my tears because I was too emotional to drive. And she said, “The job was not right for you to start with. So they probably did you a favor. God has closed one door so that he can open another door for you.” People, that was powerful. Her supportive, but stern reminder that my source was not a job was what I needed to hear.
Our source is God, and my mom’s words jolted me into a reality that i had been taught all my life. It may not feel like it in this moment, but a couple of things I knew about myself, I never give up. I may have to try, try, and try again to succeed, but I never allow myself to give up. I may have to step back, take a little break, reassess, re-strategize, and get back on the journey again. But, I have always prided myself in being a fighter. I guess it got my determination from my parents. I never saw them give up. Also, I was a preemie baby, weighing two pounds, nine ounces when I was born. I was born mid-January and my parents couldn’t take me home until March. My mom said that my doctor told them that I wasn’t strong enough to suck a bottle because my lungs had not developed enough strength for me to suck a bottle. So, he said that they dropped the milk to me with a medicine dropper and I gobbled every bit of it up. So, he told them that one thing I CAN tell you is you all have a fighter in there in that incubator. Turns out it was in me from day one.
I always want to encourage you. So, never give up. You are going to experience setbacks. Things sometimes are not going to go the way that you would like for them to go, but try your best after just a short pity party. You are allowed to have a pity party, but what I would recommend that you not do is let that pity party last too long. Give yourself about a day, if that long, to have the little pity party, go and get some ice cream or other guilty treat, watch your favorite movie or TV show. But even then, if you’re like me, the wheels of your mind will still be turning to figure out how you’ll overcome this setback. I seldom say never, but I have truly never faced a situation that was so bad, that I didn’t think I could defeat it with God’s guidance and grace. Let me tell you, even being a victim of domestic violence in my first marriage, didn’t defeat me. My mind was always on a strategy to get myself out of the situation, that’s how I’ve always been. You can do the same. Why? Because you’re worth it.
Don’t let a job be your identity. It’s okay to enjoy your job. I have a job now that I greatly enjoy. I don’t hate going into the office, like I did with the job that I got fired from, but even my current job is still not my identity. I’ve been doing human resources for over 30 years. So God just placed it on my spirit to tell you to not let being fired from a job end your career. Now, I know that things are going to play out differently for everyone. But some ways that I can assure you that would help you to bounce back more quickly are to one, listen to some inspirational music, with positive lyrics, not a whole lot of profanity and no negativity.
Now, as all of you who watch me and follow me know, I am a Christian. So I’ll usually listen to my contemporary gospel, but there are some old school gospel songs that really get into my soul and into my spirit and build me up and get me thinking about the goodness of God in my life and the things that he’s already brought me through. And I would encourage you to do the same thing. If you have hit a rough spot in your career or in your job search, know that it is not the end of the world. And even if you get fired from a job, it should not be the end of your career. It only will be if you allow it to be. So try your best to dust yourself off. Have yourself one trusted friend or a family member who you know is not going to spread your business all over the place as soon as they get off the call with you or talk to you. They’re going to pray for you. They’re going to hold your hand. They’re going to be a shoulder when you need one. And they are going to honor your confidentiality. Why? Because they value you as a person and they value the relationship that they have with you. So have yourself one trusted friend or family member that you can always go to. And remember, everybody has their turn. So you don’t forget about this person helping you through your hard times. If they hit a bump in the road, you make sure that you are a true friend to them too; a rock for them during their time of need as well.
I can’t emphasize it enough that you need to surround yourself by someone positive, someone who has a strong faith in God and positive speech. Go online and research self-confidence on YouTube here, research in the search bar, building self-confidence, positive affirmations, engage in those things so that you can build your sense of self-worth back up and be reminded of how valuable you are and the value that God is going to allow you to take to the next employer who is going to appreciate you for the value that you do bring. And they’re going to offer you a better work environment and you are going to flourish.
Finally, don’t let other people speak negativity into your life. If you don’t want to confront them, if they speak negativity into your life, you can just either say to them outright, I don’t receive that negativity that you just spoke into my life, whether you realize it or not, that’s what you’re doing or just did. Or you can just say a silent prayer under your breath that God, I do not accept this negativity that this person is speaking over me.
And definitely DO NOT speak negativity over yourself. Instead, what you do is you put together an action plan. And one of the things that I would love for you to do is I would love for you to allow me to play a part in continuing to build you up during the journey. That’s the whole reason why I got into making these videos, not because I love being on camera, but because I feel like I have a God-given gift where I connect with people and also because I want to build people up and always help them to realize and see the value that they bring. Because it is true, you were beautifully and wonderfully made in the image of God. And so that alone means that you have value and you have an advantage over people who have not realized yet that they are beautifully and wonderfully made in the image of God. So step back like I did. I prayed and I told God, I need a month and a half to get myself back because I knew I was going to have to work on improving my health. And I felt like I needed six weeks.
After a month and a half I had another job. And I remembered that during my interview, I was honest about being fired, but I did not tell my interviewers about my health condition. It is also illegal for an employer to ask you health-related questions during a job interview. Don’t lie and have to worry about looking over your shoulder, wondering when your lies are going to catch up with you. I concentrated on the mistake that I made that led to my involuntary separation, but I did not go into detail or give her any indication about my medical situation. She offered me the job, but I declined because I was waiting on an answer from another employer who I had interviewed with. This director actually called me back right after Memorial Day and told me that she normally didn’t do this, but that there was something about me that really impressed her. So. she offered me the position once more, and I accepted. That was one of the best career decisions that I could have made. It was a very calm working environment. She was very easy to work with. It is now 2024. I worked with them around 2011, and my former supervisor and I are still friends to this day. And it ended up being a blessing. And they actually wanted to offer me a full time job. But then I landed another full time job that had the same title and similar responsibilities. And it was HR, of course, and it was going to be more money. And so I decided to accept the one with more money and my career took off again.
So I hope that this story has encouraged you to not give up. It’s so important that you don’t give up on yourself because you have so much more to offer. So even if one employer does not recognize it, guess what? It doesn’t matter. It matters more that you recognize in yourself the value that you could offer another team. So I just want to encourage you to not give up on yourself and not let getting fired from a job cause you to let that be the end of your career because they are not in charge of your destiny. God and you are. And as long as you don’t give anyone that power over your life, they can’t take it. So please be encouraged.
IN CONCLUSION:
I hope that you will visit often. I welcome your presence. Please like and subscribe. Please share my blogs and videos with others who would like to live their best career life because I’m on a mission to help you live your very best career life. I also offer job search strategy sessions where I create a personalized job search strategy for those who are stuck in the job search process to help eliminate the overwhelm and the lack of self-confidence during the process. And I also offer one hour sessions, a workplace matter reviews where if you’re dealing with a situation at work that you’re not quite sure how to approach or what your next step can be or should be, I can help you talk through it and come up with some potential recommendations for you to consider to hopefully help you to either resolve the situation in the workplace where you are or to identify a better place for you.
So keep all of that in mind. Like I said, come back often, like, subscribe, and share. And I will see you during the next video. Bye-bye.
