“This may be the BEST day of my life . . . I just got fired!”

That’s not what you feel like saying on the day you lose your job, but it may be true!

As for me, well I’ve been fired twice in my life.

The first time I got fired I had been absent from work due to a flu bug that had worked it’s way through the office. The boss called me and told me not to come in to work the next day. Half delirious I thought, “how nice of him to be concerned about my well being.” When I finally awoke from my stuper I realized he meant, “or the day after that, or the day after that, or ever. . . ” Boy was I pissed! What a whimp to call me on a sick day and fire me! He didn’t even have the stones to tell me to my face!

However, as it turned out, that firing led to an opportunity for me to return to school and complete a degree I needed in order to move to the next level of my career.  Little did that whimpy boss know, he actually did me a favor!

The second time I got fired I had been working on it for several months. I was making good money, but the company I worked for had no soul. In fact, they went out of their way to suck the soul out of their employees. Clearly, the company had some ethics problems, and after 2 solid years of enduring them I decided I had to go. They were good at getting rid of people! The company had a nearly 200% annual employee turnover rate.

I wanted out, but couldn’t justify leaving. If I was going to go, they needed to provide me with the safety net of a severance package.One day responded to an email from the site manager — although some might say  I picked a fight with him.  He was clearly breaking his own “office computer use policy” by sending inane and meaningless emails to the entire staff. I sent a “reply to all” indicating the violation and 10 minutes later I found myself in his office. This was my chance. . .

Unfortunately, he was willing to let me off with a warning. Bummer! When I got back to my cubicle my supervisor said, “what do you think you are doing? Are you trying to get fired?” I answered, “Yes. But the site manager didn’t take the bait. I guess you are stuck with me a little while longer.” He replied, “Go home, I’ll take care of it.” The next day I came in to find my cubicle cleaned out, a moving box full of my stuff, a pink slip with my name on it and a severance package that helped me bridge the gap between jobs. That was one of the happiest day of my life! As it turns out, both of those days were!

So you’ve been fired? Join the club.

It may feel a bit devistating, but in reality it could be the best thing that ever happened to you.  The key is to learn from you experience and move on.  Here’s my simple formula for doing that without taking the poison from one position into the job search with me.

1. make a list of what you did well at you job.  Be specific.  Give numbers whenever possible. You will use this list when you create your resume, interview, and negotiate for your next salary.
2. make a second list of what you did not do well, and what went wrong.  You are going to use this list in your next job search when researching company culture.
3. purge yourself of the poison feelings you have about getting fired.  Talk to a friend, a counselor, a career coach or someone who can help you get the venom out of your system.
4. develop a statement about why you left your last position that allows both you and your former employer to be seen in the best light.  Le me be clear here — DO NOT LIE!  EVER!  On the other hand, you don’t have to “bleed” all over the place either.  Something like, “After 7 years things had changed, and we came to an agreement that it was time for me to look for other opportunities.”  You don’t really need to say much more than that.  You former employer won’t, in fact, they have probably already forgotten about you.

I hope these tips for getting past getting fired are helpful to you.  I’d love to hear some of your experiences.  Feel free to share them with us below.

In the mean time, happy hunting!

Are you stressed out enough yet? Losing a job is one of the top life stressors we can go through in life. Holmes & Rahe have designed a stress test to help you see how “close to the edge” we are.  When we go through a job shift many of the other factors are also present, so stress climbs!  What is your stress level?

Now that you know your stress level is through the roof, how will you cope with it? That’s right, I said COPE with it.  Chances are you aren’t going to resolve the stress completely until life takes on its “next new normal.”  Coping is how you will deal with stress until that happens. Since experts agree that coping is a process rather than an event, your coping strategy may alternate between several coping activities in order to for you to get by.

The Cleveland Clinic has come good online resources to help people cope with stress. Some common coping mechanisms they recommend include:

• Lowering your expectations
• Asking others to help or assist you
• Taking responsibility for the situation
• Engaging in problem solving
• Maintaining emotionally supportive relationships
• Maintaining emotional composure or, alternatively, expressing distressing emotions
• Challenging previously held beliefs that are no longer adaptive
• Directly attempting to change the source of stress
• Distancing yourself from the source of stress
• Viewing the problem through a religious perspective

Over the years I have picked up a few tips for dealing with stress as well.  Here’s what I recommend:

1. Focus on your own health.  Eat right. Get enough sleep.  Exercise. Play. Laugh.
2. Do something proactive. Don’t sit around waiting for the phone to ring.  Get out of the house and do something – volunteer, go to networking events, ANYTHING!  But do something!
3. Have a plan and follow it. If you don’t have a plan (complete with measurable goals and focusing on results) how will you track your progress? If the only measure of your job search success is whether or not you get a job, you will be discouraged MOST of your job search.
4. Find ways to stay positive.  It’s  battle some days, I know.  But staying positive will help you not only endure the trip, but enjoy it as well!

What action will you take TODAY to cope with the stress of your job search?

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 5.  Tomorrow’s post: “Writing A Blog To Promote Your Personal Brand”

Social media posts this week confirmed the three most popular reasons to give thanks – family, friends and a four-day weekend.

Scores of posts and tweets about blissful days away from work have me wondering … does anyone like his job? Do hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans spend every day grasping for a chance at a job just so they can dream of a four-day weekend?

One friend gave me this perspective; “Don’t get me wrong, I like what I do and I don’t mind my job, I just don’t want to be there.”

So it seems like this recession offers the ideal time to evaluate the way we work and make improvements that benefit the employee, the employer and the environment. News articles and blogs point to a shift in how we exchange goods and services and earn money. Thankfully the shift includes flexible options.

Small businesses are springing up like wildflowers in the Pacific Northwest. I doubt these new business owners expect many four-day weekends, but they don’t have to worry about getting fired. They work long hours, yet can arrange a work schedule that starts earlier (in pajamas if desired), accommodates family time and is all around more flexible. It’s hard to hide from the office, but you are the boss.

Home offices are another viable option for disciplined people. Truthfully, if our bosses said, “here is your stack of work for the day, leave when it’s done,” most people would not be in the office eight hours a day. Those that can avoid distractions will be more efficient and hopefully more content.

An idea I am really fond of is flextime. The brilliant concept is widely popular in other countries and could answer issues of recession, conservation and life-work balance. As suggested by the name, the flex differs from person to person. Some want to avoid high traffic times and others need to be home when the school bus arrives. Many workers telecommute part time just because they can.

Another friend planned to leave her design job and be a consultant for other companies. She loves her company yet struggles to balance family time and work time, especially with set hours, commuting and two children. Instead of letting her go, the company’s head honcho offered her a part-time, work-from-home option in which she dictated the hours and schedule. The company retained an amazing designer and my friend got everything she needed.

On the green side of things, offices that work four 10-hour shifts, like many government bureaus, conserve energy and fuel. I realize a 10-hour work day is not ideal for all. But, the timing is right to consider all options that would help people get more three-day weekends and save companies money. It’s feasible that we can come out of the recession with more people laboring joyfully – and tweets and posts to prove it.

I just got off the phone with a friend who is scared, and well he should be!  His company employs over 600 people and has been around for more than 30 years.  They pride themselves on “never having had a massive layoff in the entire history of the organization.” That is. . . until today.

Today they let about 40 people go from the IT department — the first mass layoff in the company’s history.  My friend has worked there for over 5 years and has felt pretty secure in his job through this entire economic downturn.  That is. . . until today.

What are some of the warning signs of a pending lay off?

• Sales Staff leave. (What do they know that you don’t know?)
• Company initiates a freeze on hiring, even to replace people who retire or move.
• Projects (especially large building or IT projects) are put on the back burner or canceled all together.
• Your competitors are laying off staff.
• You are going through a business restructure.
• Upper management calls a special meeting to tell you that “we will not be laying off anyone in the foreseeable future.”  (This is a huge read flag!)
• Minor expenses (such as free coffee in the break room) are suddenly cut.
• Unexpectedly resignation of Senior management.
• Termination of contractors and temporary workers.
• Travel budgets frozen or cut back.
• Excessive political maneuvering by people who are “in the know.”

The wise person will pay attention to these warning signs and begin to prepare for a pending layoff.  Sticking your head in the sand will NOT help you if your company decides it’s time to cut staff.  If you want to land on your feet, you need to start developing your plan now.  Otherwise, you will be left high and dry, completely unprepared to weather the unemployment storm.