Ever been fired?
 

Just curious. Have you ever been fired from a job, and if so, how'd you handle it, what happened in your life (i.e. how'd you make ends meet etc).

yeah ... by an asshole (And he still is today) 26 yrs ago! I started my own business and never looked back. I will say that i worked 2 jobs the first 1.5 yrs to make the mortgage. And these last 2 yrs I've worked part time for a company so that I could larch onto their healthcare..... something incredibly expensive ($9000) for self employed husband/wife business! We just hunker-down and do what needs to be done to get by..............

I got fired from a job just over six years ago. It was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I hated that job. I woke up every morning wondering if I had any sick days left. Long story short they fired me because my production, and quality dropped after we lost our son. So you can tell what a wonderful environment it was to work in.

They gave me two weeks severance, and promised not to fight my unemployment. So I just drew unemployment and worked a job for cash under the table until I was able to find a job.

nope and it would be something I'd find very hard to deal with.

Never been fired. Life is too short to do a job you hate, so I generally move on to something better before I allow my dislike to creep into my work.

Just to be clear, being fired is DIFFERENT from being laid off.

Fired or layed off. Isn't the uncertainy of "what next" or "now what" the same? And that's really what I'm wondering about. I've pretty much decided the concept of being fired - or said differently - being without a job - absolutely terrifies me. It's easily my biggest fear. I'm the breadwinner, have kids etc. Don't have a real glorius lifestyle and am a conservative spender, yet I fear this. It's kind of unhealthy.

:box:

I understand the fear. But the key is to use that fear in a positive way. Keep learning new things. Broaden your skills. Constantly look at the job market. Envision yourself working at another place. You'll quickly realize that there is life beyond the walls of your workplace, and that YOU are bigger than any one job.

Remember, you work for YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY. They are your corporation, your shareholders.

I was laid off once...I was a Pixie then (it was back in 2003) and some of you may remember that it was a tremendous blow to my ego. My husband was in grad school, which made it difficult to make the mortgage...but thank God we were living in Ohio where our mortgage was *much* smaller.

I did consulting about 1/2 time for 4 months while I looked for a job...when I got one, I was so grateful that I looked before I leaped and I ended up in a position where I was on the road constantly for 18 months until I quit.

We scrimped, used savings, and focused on finding enough work to offset the bills. There's work out there, if you're not too proud to do it. When it comes to survival, I'm never too proud. :)

Hell I was hoping to get laid off this winter. Kansas' unemployment is very generous. If I had been laid off with the rest of the crew this winter, and had been able to take my daughter out of day care, I would have actually made money sitting at home on my ass. I still have my other unofficial job so I would have been coming out way ahead of the deal.

Been fired twice. In both situations, my ability was of far more greater worth and reach than the jobs' environment and management...but, I was young and hungry to make a "life"...and I was the kind of person who would find something that works and didn't bother to keep looking for better if it continued to work...but when you need to grow, sooner or later you won't like what you're doing or who you're working for.

So, in both, I was fired because deep down inside I knew I was and deserved better (first job) and I didn't have (or grew to lose) respect for my boss (second job) and in both that led to my making "don't give a fuck" mistakes and slacking off, which led to my firing.

Back then, in the early 90s, the times were different, the city was different, the market for my career was different and I had been doing steady hustles in doing work since being a sophomore in art college and continued doing freelancing even during my main jobs. If you crashed back then, the burn wasn't anywhere as bad as it would be today...and if you did your legwork, you could climb back as long as you kept focus. So thanks to the job board at school which I continuously worked like a crack fiend, I eventually got a new job, my current one. But there was about a two-and-a-half month dry spell before I got this that severely tested my limits. It was hard maintaining a single apartment lifestyle without a steady income, but...my hustles came through.

Yes, from a drugstore because my drawer came up short. I'm convinced that the guy working with me that day took the money, but I had no way to prove it. I was devastated and embarrassingly busted into tears.

No, I got out before they came though the department and fired, rather than lay off, most of the workers. However, my best friend who survived the massacre later faced the harrowing experince of on a Tuesday being promoted to AVP. However, when he came to work that Friday he was "fired" by 9;45 a.m., "reinstated" before noon and placed in the "temporary until further notice" category by 4:00p.m. the same day. That status lasted almost two years until he qualified for their early retirement package that was offered to him.

Yes, I had a company suck my brain dry and spit me out.

The prick owner still smiles and says hello 15 yrs later.

He's the only person in the world immune to the AIDS virus, 'cos even

HIV needs something to look down on.

never from a "career" type job but i was fired as a waitress once. it was a summer job but i'd been waiting table for a while by then (i was a great waitress. seriously). anyway, i had an attitude with the chef and a few other local girls who worked there. one of those girls fired me at the end of my shift on a shitty tuesday-lunch where i made 50 bucks at best, for wearing the wrong color gap shirt. i went to the bar and asked for my shift drink to go, smoked a roach in the parking lot and waited for hubby (then live-in-sin-at-your-rents-summer-house-boyfriend) to pick me up. pppffftttthhh

it's like a brat pack movie.:roflmao:

i was also fired from another summer job once that i felt really awful about. i had to get up at 5:30am monday to saturday and ride my bike about 30 blocks to a hotel pool to give swimming lessons to kids by 6. i was 17 and renting a house for the summer with friends, working two jobs, and there were too many late nights of partying and too many times my roomie turned off the alarm on me. i got fired on the phone and threw up after. i really liked the kids and felt bad about fucking up so much. i finished out the summer painting t-shirts for seiks and they sold them for 30 bucks a pop.



i don't work now, but if i were the breadwinner, losing my job would be a worry. i don't think it's unhealthy unless it is consuming you.

Been fired, laid off, downsized or otherwise separated from employment more times than I can count. Looking back, the only jobs I didn't get fired from were the ones I quit before they could drop the axe on me. I also had a couple where they drew a target on my ass until I got the message & moved on. With all my vast experience at it, you might think I learned how to cope with the anger, depression, & feelings of low self-worth associated with getting shitcanned. You might think wrong about that.

Having said that, I think maybe the fear I lived in of losing my job was far worse for my health than the actual event. My biggest problem was that by the time I finally got serious about building a career, I found myself in a position that was going the way of the horse & buggy, yet paid too well to just walk away & start over at entry level. With my last pink slip I gave up working for other people altogether...working for myself is a tough row to hoe, but I work at my own pace & I know the boss isn't gonna be riding my ass if take a minute to goof off...