Being fired can be one of the most traumatizing things that occurs in a person’s life. All of a sudden you’re without income, maybe health insurance and, for some people, an identity.
You’re probably angry and scared and not sure what to do next.
It might feel like you’ll never be able to get another job. This is not true!
Some steps to take:
Should I apply for unemployment?
If you were laid off, meaning that you lost your job due to downsizing, reorganization, defunding or some other reason that had nothing to do with you, then you should apply for unemployment as soon as possible.
If you were fired because you were not able to do the job well enough, you may or may not be eligible for unemployment. It is worth a try.
If you were fired because you didn’t follow your employer’s policies or were engaged in dishonest or illegal activity (also called being fired for cause), you are likely not eligible for unemployment compensation.
As rules about unemployment compensation vary from state to state, you can get more information about it in your state by clicking here.
Get past the anger
I know you’re angry. How could you not be? Your livelihood has been taken from you. But think for a minute about who you’re angry at. Your former employer or coworkers? Probably. Yourself? At least just a little?
If you’re going to get back into the work force (and you are, that’s why you’re reading this), then you need to be honest about why you were fired and what part was due to your own behavior. You may think your employer was at fault. You may think your coworkers were at fault. Either or both of these may be true. The point is not to assign blame, but rather to move on to getting another job.
Understand why you were fired
One of the most important things you can do is to understand exactly why you were fired. This will allow you to know what steps to take and how to plan for returning to the workforce.
It is natural to want to skip this step. Forget it, I’m just getting another job. Well, maybe, but if you don’t take the time to look at what happened, you run the risk of the same thing, whatever it was, happening on your next job.
You don’t want to get fired twice.
This is particularly important if you were fired for cause. This means that you probably made some pretty serious mistakes and will need to really look at what happened so that you can plan your next move.
Here’s the good news:
We all make mistakes and hiring managers understand that. What matters is that you truly understand what happened in your case. Then you can learn from it and be able to explain what happened, what you learned, and what you will do better in the future.
Some examples:
If you were fired because of attendance and/or lateness issues, you need to figure out why you couldn’t get to work, or get to work on time, and make the changes necessary so that it won’t happen again. To read more about calling out from work, click here.
If your attitude played a part (and if you think it did, then it probably did), you might want to check out these posts here and here to determine if you need to work on your attitude in the workplace.
If you were fired because of violating a policy, you’ll want to know exactly which policy you violated (it will be noted in the documentation that you received when your employment was terminated) so you can figure out why you missed it or chose not to follow it. Hint: It doesn’t matter that others were also violating the policy.
For a detailed walk-through of the various reasons for being fired and what you should do about it now, enroll in this Free mini-course: Getting Back on Track after you’ve been Fired.
