The worst thing that can happen to you is to get fired! Even if you were struggling or becoming progressively unhappy in your employment, quitting your job suddenly can feel like a failure by drastically impacting your confidence and self-esteem. Being forced to leave your job involuntarily can send you into a whirlwind of emotions, including embarrassment, shame, worthlessness, self-pity, and melancholy. It's not easy to get back on your feet after something like this, but you must if you want to move on and have a successful career because no one wants to hire someone who is down on their luck.
People who have been dismissed tend to go to extremes. They may throw themselves into a fresh job hunt wholeheartedly in an attempt to forget what happened, alleviate financial concerns, and establish their worth to themselves and others. On the other hand, some people are so depressed by the circumstance that they wish to hide from the world and complain incessantly.
In his latest episode of Conversations with Rakesh, SoME Founder & CEO, Rakesh Godhwani addresses on what we can do to ensure our journey forward after being fired.
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Losing a Job
Losing a job is a very devastating experience, and if it’s not handled well, it can have a long-term impact on our lives and our career. When you are a very capable person, and you are suddenly asked to leave for no valid reason can put you into a lot of emotions:-
The first one is, anger, hurt, frustration and bitterness, and you are angry at the system. You might be angry at your boss, your CEO and everything about the organization. That bitterness and anger can kill you and even literally hollow your thought process. So please be aware of your emotions.
Second, many of you would have monthly bills to pay, maybe an EMI, education, children, spouse, or dependents. Things are hard, and pressure is going up, so it’s a double whammy. As inflation is going up, there is no steady source of income, and that’s where you may experience serious anxiety. This is when your minds push you toward nervous breakdowns because of the fear and anxiety of where you will get the money. It is devastating for a person to not know where the next paycheck comes from and know very well that the bills are not going away. So, it’s a very hard time. This emotion of anxiety and fear can devastate your thought process.
The last is, now that you have been asked to go and experienced rejection and failure, It might impact your ability to take risks anymore; which is very bad for you. You may not take risks anymore; you might settle for something less challenging because your decisions are now about making yourself secure. You would think of doing a steady job is better than taking a risk, to have a steady income would be compromising on jobs which you can do it might be risky but then that’s where innovation comes in, so your whole idea of innovation critical thinking might severely impact because of this emotion which is fear of failure.
Let them all out and Re-architect your life
Remember that your anger, bitterness, anxiety and fears and your ability to take on challenges can severely impact you, which are not good for you. So whatever you do make sure that your emotions are dealt with you, talk to someone about them and let them come out.
All these emotions can also affect your confidence and self-esteem you might end up in a guilt trip, a vicious cycle. Economy downturn is a macro issue and various other issues are not in your control. This is a very good time for you to calibrate your thought process, now you have to find that sweet spot where you re-architect your finances and re-architect your finances and re-architect your career. Look at your bills and see if you can minimize them. There is no harm in asking for help when you need it.
Balance, Invest, Network
I think one of the things we human beings haven’t learned is we don’t learn from history, and when the downturn comes we are unable to deal with it. So balance it out, financially architect your life. Stabilise your expenses, see if you can offset something, and ensure that the monthly burn is reduced. The last is re-architect your career, re-invest in your skills, own them, invest in your talent, do what you have to do.
You must network with people regardless of recession and good times. Networking is an art to keep, so keep networking. Establish relationships or invest more in your skills, invest in relationships because this is the time these relationships and skills will help you.
Being fired is a very devastating time which can impact your self-esteem, confidence and overall identity but if you let those emotions come out and deal with them and close them properly, the path of recovery is very beautiful.
