I THINK I MAY BE GETTING FIRED

If you think your supervisors are building a case to fire you, it is probably a foregone conclusion that they are. I don’t want to spend time trying to create strategies to avoid it.  In fact, I think the complete opposite. I would like to spend a little time explaining how to beat them to an inevitable separation, while protecting yourself.

Firings are not the end of the world, but if you can avoid one, I would highly recommend it. It is so much easier searching for your next job when you can say, “I had to walk away, I just didn’t feel like the position fit my skill sets.” …or something like that.

I wanted to give you some thoughts on how to maneuver your way through these difficult times  I also want to address things that you may not be able to see or are not thinking about.

• Expect your employer, your supervisor, (who used to be your friend,) and even some fellow employees to change their behavior toward you. When a firing is in the discussion stages, everyone will have been through an HR lesson on what to say and what not to say to you. This usually comes after some action that you did wrong. It could also come after a bad personnel evaluation. Generally, this is in writing. Employers, and especially Governments are very nervous of action being taken against them for a wrongful termination.
• Be careful who you confide in. If you are a director or senior manager and you have people that directly report to you, you can’t always believe what they are telling you. If you are their supervisor, they tend to show empathy to your positions because you are their boss, but when the decision goes down, you can pretty much expect these people to side with the employer and not you.
• You may be right in your position, so what! Do you really want to spend time, energy, and usually money, to fight a firing. If you win, what did you win? Your horrible job back with an agency you do not want to work for. My recommendation is that at the first sign that you think your employer is building a case against you, start looking around for another job.
• Often before a firing, in a very intimidation meeting, the employer may “offer” you the opportunity to resign. Be very careful of this. When an employer does this, they are doing it with the hope of intimidating you into signing an agreement that absolves them from everything. Do not go into this meeting without being prepared. Anticipate the offer to resign, then prepare for the action you will take. Some question you may ask when you enter the meeting.
  1. Can I record this meeting? (Put your phone on the table.) They will say no. If they ask why, simply say that you would like a record of the meeting. Again, expect them to say no.
  2. They will usually want you to sign the separation agreement immediately. Ask them if you can look over it and bring it in the following day. They will, again, say no.
  3. Ask them to tell you the specific reasons that they would move toward a termination if the agreement is not signed.
  4. Before your meeting, go to HR and ask for you last few years of evaluations.
  5. If they say no to everything, you may want to recap the results of the meeting with a closing sentence before you leave. An example of what to say could go like this…

“Let me make this clear so that there is no misunderstanding. You refused to let me record this meeting today. You would not allow me to have someone other than me read this agreement. You would not discuss with me specific reasons for my termination, and I have my last three years of evaluations that say I have been a pretty good employee. Is that accurate?”

• Usually, your anger and feeling of mistreatment has you not thinking very clearly. You have a feeling of embarrassment, and you want to be right. (Whatever right is.) This is normal but I have known and counseled countless people that have gotten fired. Every single one of them, 100%, in less than one year, are in a job that they like better with all the stress of the old job behind them. People forget fast. I had two of the best positions in the field of parks and recreation. I thought I was doing great things and that our agencies were the best. Then I left, and honestly, in just a few short years, I am not sure anyone even remembers that I worked there. That is the way it is supposed to be. We all move on, and people forget the past rather quickly.

I’ll close with a different thought.  Maybe it is YOU!  Self-reflection is sometimes hard to do, but maybe you need to be objective of the things that you need to improve upon. This is not something that you should work on if you are going to be fired, this is something you should work on every single year of your life. I think it is a good idea, each year, to list the things you need to improve on, then do it.

If you go back to the beginning of this post you will see that I mentioned that we all know when this is coming, don’t miss the signals and get out before they push you out. They will eventually win. If you leave before the big fight, you are the winner. You owe it to yourself to be in a great working environment. They are out there.