I was hurt when I was fired. But looking back, I can see the reason why it had to happen. Here are some lessons from getting fired from work, effective immediately!
I am excited to talk about these lessons from getting fired from work even though it was an unfortunate occurrence in my life. Not all people experience it, so…
I was fired in mid-2019 before it became normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the lessons I learned from getting fired from work, effective immediately:
- Nothing is permanent in this world.
- Some people will sabotage other people’s work because they don’t want their position to be taken away from them.
- Not all of your colleagues are your friends.
- Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
- Sometimes, you will be fired because that is part of your destiny.
Let’s begin.
5 Lessons From Getting Fired From Work Effective Immediately
I want to start off by saying that it is your choice to be wherever you are right now. If you can’t see other options, it is not because those options don’t exist.
It is because you don’t have the guts to choose those options, so you fool yourself into believing that they don’t exist. You will say, “I don’t have a choice.”
In reality, you are either scared to take the risk, scared because you don’t want to struggle, or scared because you don’t want people to look down on you.
I know many people are against my belief that you can be happy without money. I myself was against that back then, but life happened and it changed my mind.
In 2020, I had no stable source of income. Minimum wage earners in the Philippines earn around P180,000 annually, but I earned less than P80,000 in 2020.
According to FilipiKnow, Filipinos who earn less than P250,000 annually are not required to pay taxes.
On top of that, I used up my savings because I was paying the bills. I entered 2021 as financially incapable. Sad.
I see 2020 as the worst year of my life so far. I was financially struggling, but I was also emotionally broken and had mental health issues. I was depressed.
A few years later, I have overcome my financial issues, but the pain is still here. Sometimes, I cry hard because of it. The pain, not the money.
You see, money issues come and go. But some emotional pain lasts until we die, and it might even make us want to die.
This is why I care less about money at this point.
I know I can overcome money issues because I was able to. But I don’t want to hit rock bottom once more, mentally and emotionally, because it might make me want to end my life despite the amount of money I have.
My post about being financially comfortable is something I feel I need to justify. Many will disagree, but I believe that anyone can be happy even when broke.
Some people think I am playing safe and afraid to take risks. But the truth is, I am being careful with my choices because I don’t want to die yet.
I just wanted to share that because my deep emotional wound started when I was fired from work for the first time in 2019.
Here are the lessons from getting fired from work unexpectedly!
1. Nothing is permanent in this world.
One of the lessons from getting fired from work is that nothing is permanent in this world. You can lose your job anytime!
Before firing people became normal and a trend, I experienced getting fired, and it happened without any warning. I had to process the situation quickly.
I was hurt when it happened not only because I was not expecting it.
I was unemployed for about 8 months before I got that job, and I was a writer at that company. When I received an offer, I thought it was a dream come true.
It fixed my unemployment, and I was given the position I hadn’t thought I could possibly have because of my educational background. It paid well, too!
I enjoyed working for them because I was happy. I thought they were also happy about me, so I was thinking I would last there for over a year.
But on the morning of August 5th, 2019, I received a message from one of the bosses. He was sorry because they had to let me go.
I think it happened at around 8 AM. I just clocked in for work. My work schedule for them was from 6 AM to 2 PM.
I did my best to remain calm and respond to him in a respectful way. I think I said something like, “I understand. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”
AllBusiness says that you should be professional even when you are fired unprofessionally, and they shared reasons why.
And then I messaged my mom, and she said that it was okay and some words I forgot. She tried to be compassionate.
She is quite philosophical and spiritual, so she just thought I wasn’t meant to be there. So, I think she said that I would find a better job.
My mom seems intimidating, and a lot of people are scared of her. But she is a good mother, and I am very happy she is my mother.
A few days later, my relatives knew I was fired because of my talkative little brother. But that was funny. I didn’t get mad at him for spreading it.
2. Some people will sabotage other people’s work because they don’t want their position to be taken away from them.
Before I received a message from the boss, something odd happened. I was logged out of WordPress, and the content manager assigned lots of tasks to me.
We were using Google Sheets for content management at the time.
Changes made in Google Sheets can be seen in real-time, and I saw the content manager assigning 10+ tasks to me in less than a minute.
Weird, but I didn’t think it was weird because I didn’t know something unpleasant was about to happen. It actually made me happy because more tasks, more trust.
But just a few minutes later, I was removed as a user on their WordPress blog. And then a few more minutes later, I received a message from the boss.
But that’s not all. A week before the day I was fired, which was Monday, the content manager asked me to work on a blog post about handsome serial killers.
Career Explorer explains that content writers work under content managers. Usually, there is only one content manager, and content writers can be many.
She was the one who added the images of those handsome serial killers in the post, and the serial killers were ugly in those pictures.
I didn’t comment because she was above me and had more power, so it was still up to her whatever images would be used.
But she picked those ugly images on purpose.
She picked those so that the readers would comment on them. There was one comment that stood out, and it was harsh. I had no proof, but I knew it was her.
She created a fake account and commented on the post I worked on. The comment attacked my writing skills. I lost my confidence for a while because of it.
Her Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts also gave me hints that she was behind the firing. She acted quietly but didn’t know how to hide traces.
3. Not all of your colleagues are your friends.
I thought she was my friend, and maybe she thought the same. But among friends, there is at least someone who is envious and secretly wants us to suffer.
She was that friend. We were on good terms, so I wasn’t thinking she could do that.
But even on the day I was fired, she was nice to me — and that made me think she wasn’t genuinely a good friend to me. She pretended she was innocent!
In an article published by A Conscious Rethink, some people can’t admit they are wrong because they can’t accept the fact that they are imperfect.
She even assigned many tasks to me just to cover up the fact that she knew I was about to get fired. She acted surprised when I told her I was fired.
Funny because she had a massive role in it. I think she thought I was dumb. A lot of people do think I am dumb. *shrugs*
Even though it is possible to be friends with your co-workers, not all of your co-workers can be your friend. Some are enemies.
4. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
What I like about freelancing is that if I lose one client, I will not struggle so much. Freelancing is unstable, but if you have the guts to go solo, you can survive.
For those who are used to being an employee with job security, and who knows how much they are going to get every month, life must be easier.
But because they are used to comfort and predictability, if they become unemployed, it would be a big deal. They would lose their only source of income!
It was a big deal to me back then to be unemployed because I was used to stability. So, when I was fired, I was so down. I even cried every night for days.
I kept asking God, “Why does it seem like evil always wins?” And then I would cry because I couldn’t understand why.
Of course, the firing wasn’t the only reason why I asked that question. I was 22 when I was fired, and I had seen a lot of terrible things in 22 years.
I am an introvert, and society is harsh on us. Susan Cain said that introverts struggle because society favors “action over contemplation.”
But I didn’t start putting my eggs in different baskets until I entered the freelancing world in December of 2019.
My freelance career wasn’t in great shape at the time because I was just starting out. But I realized it was possible to work with different people at the same time.
When I entered the freelancing world, I had a different priority and wasn’t interested in freelancing, so I was quitting clients in less than a month.
When I thought I was done dealing with bosses who couldn’t appreciate me, the hatred forced me to be a boss myself and be a full-time freelancer.
It was in August of 2022. Exactly three years after I was fired.
It was my dream to be promoted, and I wasn’t even dreaming of a super-high position. But no one wanted to make my dream come true.
So, I made it come true and I promoted myself. I became their equal — a business owner. I started to have full control over my professional life.
5. Sometimes, you will be fired because that is part of your destiny.
The last of the lessons from getting fired from work is that, sometimes, it happens because it is part of your destiny.
I was hurt when I was fired, but looking back, I can see the reason why I had to be fired. For one, if I hadn’t been fired, I wouldn’t be where I am.
I am grateful for that job because it was like the door that led me to being a professional writer working with foreign clients from home.
I didn’t apply for that job. It landed in my lap while I was on the verge of being depressed because I couldn’t get a job for about 8 months.
It was scary when I received that offer because — GOSH — I had zero experience in content writing, so why were they offering me that position?
But I accepted it despite the nervousness. If I had chosen to reject it because of my lack of confidence, I might have been working in an office.
The Muse advises that you grab the opportunities offered to you even if it is scary. You can grow by doing that.
Or maybe I would have been a law student and pursued my dream of being a prosecutor and criminal psychologist.
My target was to obtain my law degree by 27, so I should have graduated by now! It is wonderful to think that one decision can change many things.
But I know. How can that be destiny’s work if I think that my life right now has been the result of my choices?
AH. I haven’t told you the name of the boss who fired me. It still amazes me that after getting fired by Brendan, I was hired by Brandon days later.
Last Words
Sharing these lessons from getting fired from work was good. Getting fired may be a sad thing, but knowing that I experienced it makes me feel for others who were laid off, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Have you learned anything from these lessons from getting fired from work?
If you enjoyed reading these lessons from getting fired from work, here is a video of me explaining what it felt like to be fired:
