CW Room

What I wish I knew 5 years ago when I was a struggling, unemployed 21 year old newly inducted into the workforce was that I don’t have to take work that I’m overqualified for.

Putting yourself in positions that may undermine your abilities and status can very likely cause you pain, hurt, self-doubt, and above all, humiliation. Getting fired for doing something right is just as humiliating as getting fired for doing something wrong.

In that moment, as I walked back from my managers office to collect my things, that was THE one moment in my life that I wished most that my tears could just hold on a little longer – just until I was out of there.

I wanted so badly to save face. ‘Never let them see you cry.’ Of course, anyone who has cried at an inconvenient time before knows that crying is fuelled by trying not to cry, but anyway.

Lets back up though. Because even though you don’t know me well enough, I know it is absolutely out of character for me to be fired. So let me explain.

Why I Got Fired

Because I was so desperate to join the workforce, start my career and making money, I took a temp job at a college in London. This was the first time someone had offered me a job and even though it was temporary, I was glad for the CV padding.

I was a Digital Marketing temp, also called business support and I went into that job thinking I’m going to give them everything they ask for and more. The very least I could get out of that is a great recommendation, right?

Well, on day two I was asked to configure a social media scheduling software because they couldn’t use it to post on Facebook and even though they didn’t have the password, I should still try to make it work.

Long story short, I deleted the Facebook account off of the scheduling software, figuring I could re-log in whenever they found the password again. A little while later, my manager called me in and asked if I had removed the Facebook account off the scheduling software.

I confirmed it, she was unamused and the next morning I was fired. I, of course, can yell from here until tomorrow that I didn’t deserve it. The truth is, though, it doesn’t matter. I was a temp and it didn’t seem like they expected anything of me but to sit pretty and organise files.

They didn’t want me making executive decisions like logging out of an unusable account or creating serious social media plans that would actually come into use.

How Getting Fired Feels

For those of you who have never been fired, you must already realise how negative the word sounds. For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing this terrible feeling, you know what I’m about to say.

It’s terrible. You feel embarrassment like you could never believe even if you don’t believe you’re at fault. In fact, especially if you don’t believe you’re at fault because the moment you’re fired you start coming up with a thousand and one reasons that this dismissal does not and should not apply to you.

You become self-conscious of the word being directed towards you and you can almost see the confidence that you built around this job and the assurance it gave you – the routine you built around it – come crashing down brick by brick.

It feels like the biggest misunderstanding, the biggest injustice that you have been deemed unworthy of something that you thought you were doing quite well. That you do not deserve this. You feel Anger.

And if you are a temp or you work at a high security location or if you’ve been working somewhere for a short time, you’ll have to be escorted by HR or security. That alone is dehumanising. It feels unnecessary and offensive.

What To Do When You Get Fired

Cry

As someone who cannot deal with a sudden dose of negative emotions all at once, well I cried. And no, the tears did not wait until I got out of the office. I was over there logging out of the computer and packing my poor salad in tears.

I walked out of the building in tears, I climbed the bus in tears and called my friend in tears. I know I must’ve looked like a complete idiot and at that point I did feel self conscious about what I must’ve looked like balling my eyes out on the bus, but I genuinely couldn’t stop.

Like a waterfall or a fountain. In fact the more I tried to stop the harder I cried, it was actually hilarious come to think of it. I got a call from the woman at the temp agency and even then I couldn’t stop crying and when I got home an hour after I’d left and my mother and sister asked me what on earth I was doing back home – guess what I was doing?

Re-evaluate Your Priorities

The tears didn’t stop but my self-esteem did return to normalcy a few hours later when I realised I actually didn’t need a temp job to make my career. I wasn’t gong to let a dismissal that came from trying to do a serious, good job get me down because here’s the thing.

A business with good, decent human resource practices that worry about employee satisfaction and personal wellbeing and career progression are the companies you should be working for if you will be working for any company at all.

Getting fired, prior experience and CV padding, while consequential, is not something you should allow to influence your future or well-being in any form.

It All Makes Sense in the End

It turned out afterwards that the company had a terrible employment satisfaction record and almost all of their past employees online complained of corruption, gossip, unfriendly employees and other similar problems that they found unenjoyable to work with.

So it seemed that this was a common problem with that workspace and it was unlikely for a temp to have a better experiences than employees who had worked there for five or ten years.

Well the moral of the story is that you can’t let companies define your self-worth and that you shouldn’t be part of a company that will only take you at a level you feel you are overqualified for.

And definitely, absolutely google a company’s employee reviews before you start because that could make or break your satisfaction at that company.

Thanks for reading 🙂

If you enjoyed reading this blog, check out more ‘In my 20s Era‘ blogs. I also write Book blogs and original fictional short stories that you should give a try!