We all have jobs that suck occasionally, but it doesn’t mean that we want to be fired. The empowering thing to do when you hate your job is to quit, or find something better and hand in your resignation. It makes you feel like a failure when you’ve been let go from a job, and it can leave you feeling embarrassed and deflated. The thing is that not every firing goes down that way. If you’ve been fired from a business because they don’t believe you are the right fit, you can wrap your head around that.
But if you find yourself calling numbers for gross misconduct solicitors because you’ve been accused of something that you didn’t do, or you need protection for something you did do, then being fired does feel different. No matter what happens, you are still worthy of gainful employment when you have been fired or let go from a position. There are thousands if not millions of jobs out there in various countries across the world, so there will always be something to do, but not today. Today you should focus on the few things you should do when you’ve been fired listed below.
- Get some references lined up. You don’t want to ask your now ex employer for a reference for a new position if you start looking. Instead, get in touch with a former coworker who also no longer works for the business and ask them to be your employee reference. If you still have friends in the company, you could also ask them to be a company reference. If your former employer has a basic reference policy that just confirms your tenure with the company rather than the details of the firing, establish this with the human resource department before you leave.
- File for unemployment. When you get fired from your job, you might be in a little bit of shock and need some time to adjust while you look for a new role. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to walk into a new position, so going on unemployment will help to cover your immediate expenses so you don’t have to take too much from your savings or go into huge amounts of debt just trying to survive. Not everybody likes the idea of going on unemployment, but if you are unemployed that is what it’s there for.
- Leave a review. If you were fired for no real reason and you have a case with a lawyer, leave a review on Google or Glassdoor to tell others what to expect from the employer. Were there warning signs that you were going to be fired? Will you put on any kind of probation? Was the firing your fault? If not, let the current employees of the business know the real reasons you were fired to warn them.
- Assess your financial plan. Figure out what to do with your 401K if you had one with your former employer, and what to do with any pension payments or taxes. There may be some annual vacation days or sick pay owed to you, which you should be able to claim on your final paycheck. Make sure all of those finances are in so that you know what you can and cannot afford.
