How to lose your fear of being fired - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

How to lose your fear of being fired - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Last year, my friend Jakob got a job he really likes in a medium-sized IT company. His boss is a great guy, his co-workers are competent and fun and his clients are all terribly nice people. Theres only one fly in the ointment: Jakobs boss boss (one of the VPs) is less nice. He tends to summon all his employees to meetings and chew them out collectively and loudly for whatever problems he sees. Hes abrasive and unpleasant, always complains and never acknowledges his people for the good work they do. His emails to his underlings are a case study in rudeness. And, of course, hes known for summarily firing people who cross him in any way. Now, while Jakob likes his job, he doesnt need it. Hes independently wealthy and so skilled he can always go out and get another job, and therefore has zero fear of being fired. Where other people in the company feel they must watch their tongue for fear of the consequences, he feels free to say and do exactly what he thinks is right. And heres the thing: When Jakob stands up to this VP and tells him that he wont stand for his unpleasant approach and exactly why his abrasive style creates problems for the company, he listens. Nobody has ever told any VP at the company these things before, and for the first time the company has an employee that is totally unafraid of doing so. The result: This particular VP is slowly changing his ways. And he certainly pulls none of his usual attacks on Jakob, who he knows simply wont stand for it. The risk of being fired is the biggest axe a company or a manager holdes over employees heads. Its a mostly unstated, but well-known fact of working life that if you as an employee get too far out of line, youll be fired. Or terminated/axed/given the chop dont you just love those terms, with their unsubtle flavor of death? And of course we have tacitly accepted that being fired is a terrible thing and should be avoided at all cost, which is why many of us will accept bad conditions at work and otherwise go to extraordinary lengths to keep our jobs. Do this, or else People who live in fear of being fired tend to: Take crap from management Follow unethical or immoral orders Stand for bullying or harassment Go along to get along Mask their real personalities Hide their real opinions Accept too low or unfair salaries Kiss butt Avoid complaining about any problems they see Wanna bet how many people at Enron had a sense that something was wrong long before the company was exposed, but kept it to themselves out of fear of losing their jobs? So I say its time we take the stigma out of being fired. If you can rid youself of that threat (or at least reduce it greatly) then you grant yourself much wider lattitude at work. Trust me, our workplaces will be better and happier for it. You say Im fired like its a bad thing And when you really think about it, whats so embarassing about being fired? Here are some of the most common reasons people are fired, and why that doesnt reflect badly on the firee: Personality mismatch So you didnt fit in at that one company. Guess what, there are millions of others. There might just be one somewhere that is a good match for you. Besides, who says you were the problem? Skill mismatch So you tried out a job, and you didnt have the skills for it. Big deal. Again there are millions of other jobs. Refusing to go along I say good for you. If thats why you got fired, be proud. Downsizing Thousands of people are downsized every day. Unreasonable If you were fired for being pregnant or any other unreasonable excuse, then theres certainly no reason to be ashamed. The exception is people whore fired for harassing or abusing others or people who are repeatedly fired over the same problems. These people need to take a closer look at themselves! Make being fired less of a problem Of course being fired can create problems, but you can deal constructively with many of them, and thus reduce or eliminate the consequences. Here are some typical problems of being fired and how to mitigate them. Economic uncertainty This must be the biggest problem that results from being fired. How will you pay your bills, your mortgage and your kids college savings. There are two ways to reduce the financial problems of being fired. You can increase your employability and make it easier for you to find a new job. This is a matter of keeping your personal and professional skills up to date and of cultivating a good network. The second way is to keep your private expenses low, so that youre not 100% dependent on that pay check every month. I love this approach myself, and wrote about it in a post called The Top 10 Advantages of Low-Rent Living. Trouble explaining being fired to next employer But how will I explain to my next potential employer that I was fired? If you believe that being fired is embarassing and that it reflects badly on you, then this will come out in your CV and in your job interviews. But if you hold your head up high and explain exactly what happened and why youre not ashamed, then this will help convey the impression that Yeah, you were fired, so what! Some employers will care, some wont provided you explain it right. Shame Many people feel a deep shame at being fired and at being unemployed. Thus being fired from your last job is typically not something we mention in polite dinner conversation with strangers. But why not? Why must being fired or being unemployed be so darned embarassing? It doesnt need to be! You decide for yourself whether you need to be ashamed or not! Dont let others force shame upon you, if you have nothing to be ashamed of. Loss of relationships For many people, their closest relationships are with people at work and losing them can be painful. The best way to mitigate this is to have many positive relationships outside of work also. And of course increasing your employability lets you quickly find a new job and new relationships at work. Wrap -up Reduce your fear of being fired and you increase your freedom and happiness at work. At the very least, you can stop being ashamed about something that happens to hundreds of thousands of people every year, is perfectly natural and which may not be your fault at all! Im not saying that companies should never fire people. Some people fit in, some people dont, and companies need to say goodbye to those people who are not contributing or learning. In fact, for some people, being fired from a job turns out to be a great thing, that allows them to move on to a job where they become much happier. The important thing is, that we as employees should put ourselves in a position where being fired is not a terrible thing. That way we rid ourselves of the fear of being fired and grant ourselves new freedoms at work. Are you going to do that, or are you going to spend your work life going along with just about anything, simply to hang on to a job that isnt good for you in the first place? If you liked this post Im pretty sure youll also enjoy these: Extreme Interviewing Top 5 reasons to make your startup a great place to work The time I learned to say NO at work Happy at work in 6 minutes Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related