Getting Fired, Moving On

It's not as easy as The Donald makes it seem

By: Kristin Johnson

I've been fired twice.

There. I said it. My name is Kristin; I'm 30, and I've been fired from two of the four jobs I've held in my short professional career.

And it sucks. But then you have to get over it. You can't change it. The only thing to do is to move on. It's called the past for a reason.

I know. Easier said than done, right?

After I got the boot for the first time, because I have a big mouth and I may have told the CFO that his policies were a bunch of crap, I got the best advice from a former NFL coach who had been fired many times over. He told me, on that ill-fated morning after I was no longer gainfully employed, that I needed to take myself to the closest bar and fill myself up on margaritas and drink away the pain. Because tomorrow was a new day and I had to move on as quickly as possible. But I was allowed one drunken day of wallowing.

It worked. And boy those margaritas were tasty and went down smooooth.

Getting fired, even from a job you despise, can be one of the worst experiences to go through. When a company decides to let you go, you can't help but feel like you have been punched in the gut. Most human beings are not programmed to enjoy being considered a failure. Because no matter how hard you've worked, no matter how many hours you've put in or how many sleepless nights you've had, at that very minute that they let you go, they have decided that you are no longer a valuable asset to the company. And it seems that all the hours you've put in were for a whole lot of nothing.

I think, as women, we take the whole business of being laid off harder than men. Because we take things more personally. There could be any number of reasons why we had to be let go, but most women are going to take it as a personal slight. We're going to always wonder if there was something we could have done differently to change the outcome.

For me, both times that I was let go, it was an eye-opener. It made me re-evaluate what it was I wanted to be doing and exactly what I wanted out of my career. And both times I realized that something wasn't right in my work life. No matter how much I may have wanted to change it, I needed that kick in the pants to get me to that next step--the next step of finding something I truly enjoyed doing. And for me, getting laid off was that kick in the pants.

Oftentimes you can't avoid losing your job. It's the nature of the world we live in. Recently, at my current job, we were bought out and a lot of people were let go. Layoffs usually go hand in hand with buyouts, especially in the current economy. When I was at dinner one night with friends, I was nonchalantly discussing this and the possibility that in a few weeks I might not have a job. That I might be close to getting fired for the third time in my 30 years. I was very meh about it. My friend was shocked it wasn't bothering me more.

But, as I told her, I've been through it before. I had my day, or days, of being a complete mess and just wallowing in self-pity. But you know what? I found other jobs. Other great jobs. It's not the end of the world. After the initial shock and wallowing, you can brush yourself off and get back on your feet again. You have to. Drowning your sorrows in a bottle of tequila doesn't pay the bills. And once you get back on your feet, you'll more than likely end up at a place and in a position that is better for you all around. I've found that everything really does happen for a reason.

It's easy to sit around and sulk and shake your fists to the heavens and ask them why this happened to you. Because who knows how long until you'll get a paycheck and there are always bills to pay, yada, yada, yada. But the key to surviving and getting all you can out of the experience of losing your job, is to stay positive and move on and, most importantly, learn something from the experience.

Not to sound too much like an after-school special, but the adage is true: when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. And adding a little vodka never hurt.

Have you been fired? How did you handle it?