Getting fired is one of the most depressing things that can happen to anybody. I know because it's happened to me and to most of the people I know. I don't care how strong your ego is or how much you hated your job, the idea that somebody has decided to get rid of you is a tough pill to swallow.
The advice offered most frequently to a person who has just been fired is not to panic. It's not the end of the world, you're told. Most people, at one time or another in their careers, have been fired-even the most successful people. Just look, you're told, at all the successful people who wouldn't be where they are today if, at some point in their career, they weren't bumped from a job they wouldn't otherwise have left.
Okay, it's easy enough for someone who's working to give this advice to someone who's just been tossed out into the cold. As the French writer La Rochefoucauld once said: "We all have strength enough to endure the troubles of others." But the fact of the matter is that, as hard as it may be to accept at the time, getting fired really isn't a cause for panic (for concern, yes, but not panic). It really isn't the end of the world, and it has indeed happened to most successful people. And while getting fired may not be exactly the "exciting opportunity to grow" some job book authors describe it as, it can be looked upon as a challenge. I could introduce you to dozens and dozens of people (myself included) who wouldn't be where they are today had they not been fired at one time or another in their careers.
I bring up the subject of getting fired here for a couple of reasons. First of all, if you are looking for work while you still have a job you are in a "high risk" category for getting fired. Getting found out, if it happens, is pretty much synonymous with getting fired.
More important, though, is that what you do as an immediate response to getting fired has a strong bearing on the job search that follows. Your response can set you back several weeks, even months. Or it can give you a foundation that will enhance your chances of finding a good-even better-job fairly quickly.
Knowing When It's Coming
Probably the first thing to be said about getting fired is to do everything you possibly can to keep it from happening. True, in some situations, there's nothing you can do. Company revenues drop. An expected project doesn't materialize. An edict comes down from the top to eliminate jobs, and you get the ax. You're not fired, but the job is.
In most situations, however, you get fired because of you: because you didn't do your job well enough or because you didn't get along well enough with your superiors.
Whatever the reasons, you can usually sense ahead of time when your job is in jeopardy. You can, that is, if you're alert to the warning signs. Here are some of the more common signs (I call them "fire alarms") that could well mean you're on the firing line:
- For no apparent reason, your desk is unusually clear and you find you're being given little, if any, new work to do.
- Several of your subordinates have been promoted to positions above you while you have stayed in one place.
- The flow of interoffice memos being sent to your attention has slowed to a trickle.
- Choice assignments that used to go to you routinely are now going to somebody else.
- Your firm has been acquired by a larger company, raising the possibility that someone from the other company will wind up at your desk.
- A "consultant," brought in to study your job, ask you surprisingly detailed questions about what you do and how you do it. (It may be that your company wants to "streamline your function." It could also be that the overly inquisitive consultant is gathering information to be passed on to your replacement.)
- Your company is forced to institute an across-the-board pay cut, and you get a bigger-than-average slice taken out of your paycheck.
- You are singled out, for no apparent reason, to take a psychological aptitude test.
- Your boss's attitude toward you changes very noticeably. You find that he (or she) is either much more critical than usual or much less critical than usual.
- You get moved to a smaller office.
- You're told you must now share your office with some-body else.
