Other than a two-week layoff back in the mid-sixties because of short term business slowdown ... no, never was fired. Would have troubled me a lot ... more so as I got older and my family and financial responsibilities grew. Not sure how I would have dealt with it.

Now that I'm retired ... I'm glad that's one worry that has passed me by.

Yeah.

Joke them if they can't take a fuck.

It's interesting reading the various stories. And from what I can tell, everyone pretty much survived it. It's just one of those ugly fears though.

I got fired once cause one of the other employees told the boss I was gonna look for other work. I knew they were gonna close that business anyway.
I was staying with a friend so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I kept pestering another friend to hire me cause I knew he was gonna need someone to help when another one of his employees went on baby leave and I had the experience he needed without having to have a lot of training.

Well, anyone who didn't survive it wouldn't be here to tell the story, would they? ;) Which I think just shows that the people here are survivors, however dysfunctional we might be otherwise, we are the folks who find a way to deal with it. Losing a job is a devastasting event on many levels when it happens, but it's human nature to look for a way to make lemonade when life hands you the proverbial lemon.

it can be ugly or joyous. I have had a couple of both

I got to thinking, if you get really technical I've been laid off twice. The first job I ever had I got so I could pay for a canoe trip to Canada. We got back a day early from the trip and I went to the store to see if they wanted me to work and they were loading everything onto trucks. I just turned my bicycle around and went home. Never talked to the owner again after that.

I was laid off the day before I left for a week's vacation in Arizona.

I came home and told Mrs. WI the news and she said "Well then we're going for two weeks." lol

I dropped four resumes in the mail on the way to the airport the next morning and came home to 5 messages on the machine from one of the companies. I called him up two minutes after I walked in the door and the next morning went for an interview. He hired me that day and I worked there for seven years before moving on.

That was the company that introduced me to managing real estate, which is what I'm still doing now...15 years later.

I've avoided this this topic because I've had a hard time recovering from when I was fired.

At first there was the shock, dissapointment and confusion from the act of being fired itself. After thinking that it wouldn't be long that I would be in the unemployment line, I went into a state of denial that "I" was the problem.

Upon further reveiw, I WISH that I had just put my boots on and my nose to the grindstone, and hit the floor running in my pursuit of a new job.

After spending 3 months mildy applying for a new job, I started in earnest. It became obvious that the job market where I live, was for crap. I spend the next months applying for any job I could find, some jobs repeatedly, just hoping for a chance.

The bottom line is that I was out of work for 336 days. I'm still mildly searching for other work, as my current "day job" has no long-term opportunity. My 2nd job is very competitive and there are few openings, so that isn't likely to turn into something that I can do full time, but I am doing my best to be in the right place at the right time.

Between the hard economy and my own having a job history that bounces from industry to industry, in search of a "career", I found losing my job to be a very life altering and completely devistating experience.

I know the feeling myself, nut...It's a devastating loss, & sometimes, the harder the crash, the longer it takes to emerge from the state of shock. Don't blame yourself for not hitting the ground running...I spent over 2 1/2 yrs out of work myself, for some reason nobody wanted to hire a 50ish diabetic with a bad back, can you believe that? ;)
I can sense in you the same state of mind that I was in not so long ago. I know it sounds like empty words, but keep hangin' in there...I also sense that you are a survivor like me...

I've been fired from four different companies. One of them twice.

Three of them re-hired me before the ink had dried on my termination papers.

My current employer is one of the three.

There's gotta be an interesting story behind at least one of those events.

Frankly, I can't imagine ever going back to work for someone who just shitcanned me...but then no one ever said of me that I don't know how to carry a grudge ;)

Yes, if I'm good enough to take back, then fuck them for firing me in the first place.

Amen to that, but I've gotta admit I'm trying to get back into the place that fired me.............but not suceeding I might add.

True enough, an empty bank account in a sour job market has no pride...I did once see a co-worker come back for less money & lower position...he had a family to support & no prospects at any other place in town. I regarded it as an extraordinary act of pride-swallowing, & a very ordinary act of fatherhood.

Oh yeh, I did go crawling back into the boss' office once after getting the axe, & actually convinced him to let me stay for less money...it only postponed the inevitable tho...