You can feel it coming: You are about to be fired.
The boss has become hyper-critical. Fellow employees are giving you the cold shoulder. You no longer get plum assignments and the assignments you do get are the absolute worst with impossible deadlines.
Everyone is getting a raise…except you. And the deadliest of them all: You’re put on a performance improvement plan.
Face it — the ax is about to fall on your neck. Not only do you have external clues, but your instincts are telling you the same thing: You hate coming in to work. Your gut is always in a knot. You’re doing everything you can but you can’t stop that downward slide toward the edge of the cliff. However, if you’ve recently been fired and have started thinking about how you can go about proving wrongful discharge there are many websites that you could visit.
It’s an awful feeling, and one that almost everyone has experienced — whether you’re an employee or a business owner with a problematic client.
There are several approaches you can take to termination: Try to salvage the situation or take steps to protect yourself and your income.
How to avoid getting fired
1. Look at your performance. Is it the best you can do? Are you meeting or exceeding your goals? If you’re doing a great job for the company, it will be more difficult to fire you. And be sure to let your boss know — without undue bragging — what you’ve accomplished. If you can quantify your achievements, so much the better.
2. Be visible. You can run, but you can’t hide. Take the first step and talk to your boss. Find out specifically what she’s looking for and don’t forget that her job may also be on the line. When you know what your boss wants, you can help her reach her goals, too.
3. Be aware of your own behavior — real and perceived. I had a boss who once told me perception is reality and it really ticked me off. It took way too long for me to understand he was right. You may think you’re doing and saying the right thing, but if others don’t see it the same way, it doesn’t matter. So if people think you’re snarky, uptight, unfriendly, nosey, slacking off or whatever, that’s what counts. And yes, it’s not fair, but then again neither is life.
4. Don’t be a clock-watcher. Come in early if you can and don’t be the first one out the door at quitting time. Demonstrate that you are committed to doing the work.
5. Lose the “not my job” attitude. The alternative is “no job at all.” Be cooperative. Take on additional assignments or even volunteer for them. Who knows — you may learn something that will help you in your next position.
How to manage being fired
Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do; the boss wants you gone and gone you will be. It happens to virtually everyone. Once you know that Walt Disney was fired for having no imagination, you will realize it’s not the end of the world. It just feels that way.
Here are some tips on how to manage that experience.
1. Decide whether to quit or wait to be fired. I know — that’s like saying, “Which do you
prefer — being hit by a train or jumping off a mountaintop?” But making a conscious decision on how you want to go will make you feel more in control of the situation.
If you decide to quit, get those health exams before you lose your insurance coverage and stop spending money unnecessarily. Take the $5 you would have spent on a cup of coffee and stick it in a piggy bank.
2. Be honest with yourself. It’s important to get an accurate view of the job you’re doing. You may think you’re the brightest star in the firmament, but an honest assessment of your work product may reveal otherwise. Maybe you have been negative on the job because of the deteriorating conditions — or because you’re a negative person. Maybe you’ve been set unrealistic goals — but maybe you haven’t really given it your best effort.
Knowing your strengths and your weaknesses will help you figure out what you want from your next position.
3. Collect supporting documentation. These could be “attaboy” emails from the boss, glowing annual reviews, love notes from clients and so on. These will help remind you that you’re not the total incompetent that perhaps you’ve been made out to be.
And if you think you’re being discriminated against due to your age, sex, national origin or any of the other Equal Employment regulations, grab those, too. If you decide to press forward with a formal complaint or a lawsuit, you’ll need a paper trail.
4. Vent — but not on the job. The last thing any of your coworkers want to hear is your sad tale of woe. Find someone outside the workplace to relieve your stress.
5. Update your resume. I recommend updating it every six months, whether you need to or not. It’s just too easy to forget about the victories that occur along the way — the new, million-dollar client, the great process you introduced that saved time and money, and so forth. Add all that stuff your to resume; it’s easier to take out for specific job opportunities that to remember it five years later.
6. Look for another job. Better to look for a job while you have one, if for no other reason than to reduce the possibility of financial stress. But be sure you’re in a good place, mentally and emotionally, when you apply. If you feel beaten down, depressed, worthless and so on, that will show through in the interview process.
7. Take home work samples, contact information and personal files/emails/belongings. If you do end up being fired, you will probably have a tiny window of opportunity to do this, and — even if you expected it — it will still be a blow to you. You won’t be in any shape to take care of all these things logically and systematically.
8. Think strategically. Ask for a severance package, including unused sick and vacation days. Don’t forget — you earned them. Find out about health-insurance coverage. When will you get your last paycheck? What will they tell people who ask them for a reference? Check into unemployment compensation.
9. Be classy. You do yourself no favors if you’re emotional. A calm exit will be easier for everyone (especially you) and can lead to future recommendations from colleagues and possibly even your boss.
What advice do you have for people who believe they are about to be fired? Please leave your comments below.
Great tips, I especially like the last one.
Be classy. All the time in fact.
Don’t let it get to you, it’s just a job. One door closing leads to another opening.
So true, Tim. Sometimes it’s hard to keep enough emotional distance to realize that better things are ahead. Appreciate your comments.
When I was fired in 2001, I did not follow #9. It is easier said than done. I left (after 5 years of dedicated service) like a dishrag; a bowl of jello with my tail between my legs. I was denied unemployment insurance (which was upheld by the state) and was sued by the employer for lost revenue (the boss did not prevail). To leave with class would have been to go to Modell’s and purchase a baseball bat instead of having that dreaded “last supper” at Andy’s Town Coffee Shop like a wimp. Then as that monster was throwing things out of my desk while growling on that skinny cigar, I could have produced that baseball bat and bludgeon that ruthless, sadistic, blood-sucking, money-monger butcher (with no scruples, no integrity, no conscience, and all the compassion of Hitler) right in the bald spot, and keep clunking that butcher in the bald spot until his brains leak out of a hole in the skull where the bald spot used to be. Then I could urinate on his remains.
I would have no trouble finding a new job (making license plates), but at least the world would be rid of the corporate equivalent of Adolf Hitler.
Umm. Wow. That’s quite a diatribe. Yeah, I suppose you could have done all those things IRL — but then you would have been no better than your former boss. Actually, you would have been quite a bit worse than your former boss because at least his butchery was limited to emotional and mental. Not that I’m trying to excuse him at all, because he truly does sound like the lowest form of life.
In my mind, the bigger issue is this: It’s been nearly 20 years since this happened to you. I strongly urge you to seek professional help to get beyond your anger. As the Buddha once said, “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”