When You Deserved to Get Laid Off

When we get laid off, we are likely to blame the business for over-hiring, or mismanaging their team, or something else. Often this is true, you shouldn’t take it personally. But what if you weren’t laid off? What if you were fired? What if you really didn’t bring much value to the work force? How can you tell which it is?

Be objective and look at the facts. If you were terminated on purpose, if a reason was given, the natural response is to deny responsibility — it’s their fault. That helps you keep up your self esteem. Nevertheless, you don’t want this to become a pattern with your career, just as if you go through one divorce you never want to go through a second.

After you’ve been laid off, and you’ve blown off the steam, and sought out a spouse or friend to help you find a sense of normalcy and self-esteem, an objective and cold look at the facts can help you make an honest assessment of how you can improve your performance in the future.

If you objectively list the facts of the situation, not the sorts of hunches one feels about, say, a criminal case, but with the hard indisputable evidence of plain facts, you can make a case for what really happened and why. You might discover in this that you didn’t perform your best because your heart wasn’t in it. Perhaps you really don’t want this career after all?

This could be a scary prospect if you’ve invested education and years of work into a career that you no longer believe in. Nevertheless, having gained that insight into yourself is invaluable. Though you might have lost some time and effort, and though the future looks a little less certain, you will have gained vision and a look at the way things really are working. In the long run, this is better than pretending you like your work when you really don’t.

On the other hand, you may not have to switch tracks entirely. Perhaps you made some mistakes and got into some bad habits that made you less valuable to the company. That can hurt your pride like few things can. Getting dumped or cheated on, and getting fired from a job, are all the greatest self-esteem destroyers. Nevertheless, again, an honest assessment of what happened and why can only strengthen you in the long run, though in the short run it might send you into dejection and confusion.

If you get fired or laid off, you don’t have to simply shrug it off as somebody’s fault. You might be part of the problem. But if you are, don’t distress: not all of us will succeed at our first, second, or even third job. Sometimes it isn’t until we’ve looked in the mirror for a long time when we realize what we can do, what we want to do. Gaining that insight is worth the pain, and is even worth getting fired over. Having weathered that much, we will gain a surer orientation.

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