Coming to terms with the inevitable

Take a deep breath and let it roll off your back, SS. If you think you want to leave, find the job first and make all the preparations.

Till then, soldier on. You'll be fine.

 

Don't make him fire you.

If you get laid off in the next round of layoffs, so be it. But don't voluntarily quit unless you have another plan in place, and don't make them fire you, or give them any reason to do so. And, while you're not doing that, be aware that they may very well be looking for one.

I say this not for the publisher's or your company's benefit but for your own.

You may rather be fired for reasons related to unemployment insurance, but that's a bad reason because a layoff also will result in you receiving unemployment payments.

Other people may glibly tell you to let the jerks fire you. But those are fighting words that don't take into account the very real possible ramifications for you, your outlook, your psyche, and your future.

It is more difficult to recover from a firing than from a layoff, and you will be left, alone, to deal with it all by yourself. Don't expect help from anybody, not even people who formerly may have been supportive of you.

You will have to decide, with every future interview, how to respond to questions regarding your termination. You'll have to find a way to explain things in a way that doesn't sound bad, and/or that the interviewer would possibly be satisfied with, all, hopefully, without having to go into everything.

Or, you will have to lie. And ask yourself if you are OK with that or not, and then, make yourself do it if that's what you decide. All this is not as easy to do as you might think.

Regardless of the reasons for a firing, or the justice/injustice of it, most future employers will be wary of people who have been fired before. They can't help it, because even if they have a good feeling about you, they'll wonder/have to hope about whether they know everything, and what, really, went on.

Even if you're as open and honest as possible, most hiring managers will have trouble taking what they perceive to be -- make that what they knowto be -- that kind of risk on somebody else. Finding even just that one person willing to do that is not easy, and it may never happen.

You could, indeed, end up being done in the field, despite your best efforts.

All this doesn't even cover the fact that if you believe you have been undeservedly fired, it is going to take a looong time for you, yourself, to recover from and come to terms with it. Again, if you ever do.

It will offend your sensibilities, and there will be virtually nothing you will be able to do about it, unless you change your mind, or unless you happen to be lucky enough to get something better immediately afterward.

For the reasons I mentioned above, among others, that is unlikely to happen, at least not right away...and maybe not at all.

This is what you'll be facing and having to deal with if you're fired, especially if you "make" it happen without another plan in place.

 

Great post, Write. You're dead on with everything you said.

 

I've been fired for my boss deciding I simply wasn't good enough at my job (and he was probably right).

I landed another newspaper job at a less prestigious paper, but the pay is about the same. It's not a death sentence.

 

Upper deck him?

 

Comet bomb time!

Or vaseline under his windshield wipers.

 

The publisher probably is the expert in doing the bare minimum. But experts are wrong, too.

 

When some of us say "make them fire you," I think what we're saying is keep doing your best and if they let you go, they let you go - NOT "start fucking up on purpose to force their hand." Just a little clarification.

 

That's what I meant, too. Don't do anything stupid that will get you fired.

Most places nowadays, even if they fire you, unless you did something criminal, won't tell your future employers that you were fired. They'll give the dates you worked, and maybe your job duties. They don't want to risk a slander lawsuit.

 

I understood what everybody meant about making him fire me. I've done the very best I can do to date, but it's just not good enough. It's tiring to say the least.

 

Maybe just walk in and have a "clear the air" sort of meeting to find out exactly what it is about you that's bothering this guy? At that point at least you'd be in position to determine whether his criticism is valid, reasonable, correctable, etc.

 

We've had a couple of those meetings, and he maintains that I could care less about the product, that I don't work hard enough to suit him, etc. I've mentioned the fact that he just seems to have it in for me, and sure enough, he ignored the statement and the question.