Fall From Grace Regarding Career

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   gmwilliamsposted 11 years ago

   To those who fell  from grace regarding your career, did you become resigned to your fate or did you rebound and found a better career or other prospects to enrich your life?

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      Efficient Adminposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Back in the mid-80s I was unfairly let go and it was the best thing that could have happened to me.  It was a corrupt management system and after I was unfairly dismissed I reported them to the HR management and I never knew what became of it because I moved from Pennsylvania (where it happened) to Washington DC and was having so much fun and better job opportunities that I just plain forgot about Pennsylvania. However I do remember talking to at least 2 of my former coworkers and they sounded miserable.  I was glad I got to move on.

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   EmpressFelicityposted 11 years ago

   I was fired from a responsible, suit-wearing job in 1993.
   
   It was the best thing that ever happened to me - not so much in terms of my subsequent career/earnings (which have been patchy), but because being fired saved me from a breakdown.

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      gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You made a positive situation out of being fired.   Many people are often devastated psychologically as a result of being fired.  In this society, although the stigma of being fired has lessened somewhat, being fired still have negative connotations.    People who are fired are often viewed as failures and pariahs.    Many people who are fired feel quite stigmatized.   They often feel as if they are nonentities.     
      
      Oftentimes, when people are fired, other coworkers disassociate themselves from the fired people as if they are diseased.   In other words, the coworkers do not want to be guilty by association.   Many people who are fired feel so hopeless that they isolate themselves from other people.   They do not want others to know that they are fired.    Being fired to such people is akin to be excommunicated from their perspective jobs/careers.   They feel as if everything is lost and finished.   They feel as if they have nothing left in their lives.    Some become quite self-destructive. 
      
      There are others who view their firings in a quite positive light.   They view the firing as a door closing while another door will be opening, if not soon, then later.    Many more view their firings as a pause in their lives- to reflect whom they were and what they wish to be.

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         EmpressFelicityposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I think the last paragraph definitely applied to me. Another thing that worked in my favour was that I was quite young then (late twenties), and I had no dependants and no major financial commitments. In fact, I even had a tiny bit of money saved up, which I was able to live on while I licked my psychological wounds.
         
         The people I feel bad for are those with huge mortgages and a family to support. Plus a lot of people invest a huge degree of their personality in their jobs - for some of them, you'd almost think they ARE their jobs. Take away that job, and it's like whipping out the foundations from under a house. I was never in that situation. Being fired brought it home to me that I must never allow myself to go down that route.
         
         I also learned that I wasn't cut out for a corporate existence. When it comes to office politics, I am as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike. That's a major problem if you want to succeed in most corporate (and government) workplaces.

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            gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Bless you, Empress Felicity, for you indeed were one of the luck and smart ones regarding the situation.   Financial advisors stated that a person should have at least six months' savings unless a dire emergency occurs.     They stress the issue even more at the present time of job uncertainty and high unemployment.
            
            Those who are fired and have six months to two years savings are not as stressed as those who have little or no savings.    The latter often have to go to unemployment and they often select a job for you.     The purpose of unemployment insurance is to tide one over until a job is found.     Sometimes, the conditions of receiving unemployment insurance is to find a job.   Many times, the unemployment counselor do find a job for you.     
            
            When one is young, he/she can often bounce back from being fired.   As one gets older, sometimes it can be quite difficult considering that the person made psychological investments in his/her career.  When that is gone, the person feels that he/she is of little or no consequence.    He/she feels that he/she is damaged goods.     Then there is the downward spiral to depression and/or worse.   
            
            I saw the documentary FIRED by Anne Gurwitch.    Ms. Gurwitch, an actress, stated that she was fired by Woody Allen.   She took that experience and interviewed several people who were fired.    There was a segment on the documentary where one job counselor stated that younger people are not as nonplussed regarding being fired as older people are.    The job counselor stated that at her corporation, there are now counselling services for recent firees.     
            
            Being fired does provide a valuable lesson i.e. never to worship and/or be slavishly devoted to a job/career at the expense of everything else.    This is because when the corporation and/or company fires you, you are just an expenditure, nothing more, nothing less!

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