Getting Fired from Your Job is a Learning Experience

Getting fired is common in today's world where companies and employees do not have a long-lasting relationship. There was a time during the Baby Boomer generation that companies were seen as the father figure who would take care of you in so long as you showed up to work everyday. Those days are gone and neither the employee nor the company feels much loyalty to each other.

That doesn't mean there aren't good companies to work for or that workers are "slugs" who don't care about anything. It simply means that society has changed due to lay-offs, separation of families and the fluid economy. To put all your eggs in one basket doesn't make a lot of sense with such instability in the employment market.

You might feel the shame that many people do when they get fired. It is normal that people get fired from time to time as long as this doesn't happen very often and only a couple of times in your career. This doesn't mean that you were a terrible worker but only someone who didn't fit into the organization that you were working at.

Let me give you an example. In the beginning of my career I worked for an automotive manufacturer and the company closed. I was searching desperately for another job and found another company that was much larger. Since I was only 27 at the time I didn't know much about the work world. I found that the cultures of the two companies were completely different. In my first employer I was given much freedom and when I exercised that freedom at the second company I ran straight into the plant manager.

I was only employed with the organization for less than 2 months. I posted times people could come and pick up their paychecks. After that time I went to lunch and when I came back a "trouble maker" had complained to the plant manager I wasn't handing out checks. The plant manager told me I was unprofessional and when I told him I had posted the times he backed off. So I felt the prudent thing was to keep passing out the checks while I was there.