Fired for Now: Getting fired, laid off, and hired again

I’ve never taken a class in economics and my eyes glaze over at a page of tables and numbers, so anything that helps me make sense of the current economic mess is appreciated.

When it explains that mess so thoroughly, at a pace that makes the minutes disappear and entertains as well, it’s a not-to-be-missed documentary for our times. That’s the film I.O.U.S.A.

Some critics have said I.O.U.S.A. is to the U.S. economy what An Inconvenient Truth was to the environment. It’s taken the dry subject of economics and cogently explains how the … Continue Reading

The Aardvark / Flickr

Yesterday, a reader of my blog told her story about getting fired on New Year’s Day (see Layoff Stories). Talk about a warm welcome to 2009.

She works in the restaurant industry and despite the general crimp in partiers’ wallets, she had a great night working on New Year’s Eve. As she described it, “We worked until midnight, made good money, and all went home happy.”

However, the next day she returned for her New Year’s Day shift only to find the restaurant shuttered … Continue Reading

The company I worked for of about 120 people had a small HR department. One person exactly. And judging from a phone call I received from her yesterday, hers is not an easy job, and not an easy job to get right.

She called to check up on me and see how I was doing. Given the firing was unexpected with no lead-up, she knew I received the news with a good dose of shock and confusion.

So I was somewhat pleased when I picked up the voice mail from her yesterday.

“Hi, it’s _____, I was just calling … Continue Reading

We all know pretenders. We may work with some. We may actually work for one. Hopefully you’re not sleeping with or married to one.

My last boss was a pretender.

On the morning that I was fired, I was clueless, about getting fired at least.

My boss likes to read industry books, and I had come across one at home the previous night that I thought would be of interest to him on a project we were working on.

Before leaving my house at about 8:30 that morning, I emailed him asking if he’d like me to bring the book in. A few minutes … Continue Reading