When I was fired

Yes, I have been fired, not once but twice. Not a proud moment to write about having been fired. Not many may want to write about bad news, bad news is semi-impersonal; it can appear in newspapers or other mass media only, for people to feel, oh, it’s not me, yet. Being fired has perhaps been less written about, if written, it has been with a lot of bitterness. Writing about being fired is not an easy thing to do, as it is no claim to fame being fired. Being fired in general is always taken as inefficiency of the person being fired. For a lot of us it still comes with a “Self disclaimer, oh, it’s not me, yet”.

There is no wrong or right being fired, many of us do not have control over being in the firing line. Rationality and logic fail to explain someone being fired. In both incidents, I had joined on my credentials, with back up of unparalleled domain knowledge, overseas experience in the field and history of excellent performance etc. 

You could have left behind a good company, joined a new company thinking it is one great company, you want to work with. There will be sea of difference between what you know and what the actual scenario could be; Company may not have the depth of investments, may not have a sound business plan, and may not be paying proper taxes, levies as per the demand of the law of the land. As to many of ills, self inflicted or otherwise, cutting costs by firing employees is seen as a panacea. Some mergers, acquisitions, buy-over happen without employee control. At an individual level, the fired employee's reactions are listed below, these may not follow the listed sequence, but most frequently the fired employee goes through.    

• Why me?
• The way in which it was done is not right
• Life is unfair
• How much time do I have?
• Any alternatives?
• What are my next options?

It has been a long time since I got fired; not that I wish that be closer. It can happen to anyone, anytime. At times like this, for many sensitive people the devil is within us, we could sulk, get negative, avoid people and many such things could happen. Some people can just move on. Yes, it took a lot of time for me to write my learning of the situation, these learning’s are not merely my own but a lot of other people who have been fired. I have also been audience to many of their narratives. These tales are nothing short of piece of action of a fiction movie or a novel. There is a sense of defeat, disgrace, “How can it happen to me”, “why didn’t I see it coming”, “Life’s not fair”, additionally there is pressure of insecurity, financial uncertainty and social obscurity. Where do I go tomorrow becomes a big question, you are used to going at a fixed time to office every morning and doing a certain things, all of a sudden that certainty is not there. My kids asked me, why am I not going to office, I had to fill in office address in a school form, in situations like these you feel very uncomfortable.

In both the companies that I was fired, I had the unique distinction of being envied by many of colleagues for the attention, recognition, my role, status, salary, travel and many more of the unique attractions of my job before being fired. I have also seen the softness of the employers when being lured into the same jobs that I was fired from. I was interviewed by many senior people, spoken to, tested, tried, sought, recommended before being hired and all these credentials seem to have lost value when being fired.    

1.    Not always you are wrong when you are fired; the company could also be, so stop blaming yourself.

2.    Situation may be beyond control of someone who made the decision.

3.    Someone is sacrificing you to show solidarity/efficiency/control.

4.    Life seems unfair

5.    Relationships that were close, thick, binding all seem lost in thin air

6.    Once blue-eyed boy could look villainous

When I went through the aftershocks of being fired, I received some great support from some people. One of them is Wg.Cdr. Murthy, a fatherly figure. I met him, when I was completely down, at almost breaking point, he said, “No one has taken away anything from you, you still have your education, experience, intelligence, creativity and all the skills, only you lost your monthly income”.

These words changed my life; I started teaching at management and Media Institutes, did corporate training, did some unconventional things, I had a family to feed and needed some confidence boosting. I would have missed a lot of experiences if I had not been fired. Yes, I missed a few monthly salary packages, but received abundance of experience of greater value. In 2000, started a company called “Bask Media Technologies”, a company that would create solutions and services for Media and Entertainment companies. Those days, Media and Entertainment practice in technology services was at its infancy, too early, may be ahead of its time, few Indian IT companies had a practice dedicated to Media and Entertainment. I always believed that, every company is a media company; all companies have media assets to be reviewed, created, saved, retained, accessed, archived and put to reuse. Re-purposing of content has always been a kind of doctrine, I have nourished from my media days.  I know a lot of people may not believe in luck, the company had 3 orders and the markets started recovering, my partner found a job in the US. With heavy heart, I had to wind up “Bask” with a lot of changes taking shape. This time, I had fired myself.

Murthy’s words were the best wisdom; I could receive amongst the dark clouds. I woke up, felt better, energized, never felt so good about myself anytime better. I have had the pleasure of working with the best employers, great managers, some not-so-great companies, and my learning on being fired are

1. Be Prepared, to be fired
2. Don’t blame yourself if you are fired
3. Not all relationships work well in your bad times
4. Save some money for a venture
5. Know where else, how you can use your skills
6. You can pursue career in a total different domain
7. You could be doing something you never done before
8. Be prepared for small, humble beginnings of income flow
9. Be prepared to work for remunerations against performance, it swells faster than you think
10. You may not be an expert at job search, get some understanding and help