Ninpō (Planning): August 2007 Archives

It happens, and if you think it can't happen to you, you're wrong. As long as someone else is signing your paychecks, especially in an at-will employment state like California, you can legally be involuntarily terminated at any time by someone you trust for reasons you may never know. The idea? Be prepared. We'll discuss options to consider and characterize the three different stages of being fired... And what to do in each. Please also keep in mind that a decision made out of haste or out of anger and desperation is very rarely a good one, and that this is the single most important variable that you can affect. So, throughout this exercise, please constantly take stock of your levels of anxiety, anger, and disquiet. If you find yourself in anything but a state of readiness to make important decisions, please step away, take ten minutes to center yourself, and then proceed.

The Three Stages of Being Fired

1.    You have a very specific reason to believe that you are going to be fired very soon

Now, this doesn't refer to paranoia, that distant voice that is always just the smallest bit suspicious that things could run South. We're talking about a situation in which you did something specific, or are aware of a very specific reason that the axe is, most definitely, about to fall. Too often, this feeling can completely disarm a person, often hitting hardest those who thought that they would never find themselves in this situation. "I'm too educated." "I'm worth too much to the company." "They wouldn't dare fire me!!!" Well, even the most tenured professor can find themselves here.

So, first off, sit down somewhere quiet and take twenty minutes to contemplate the fact that this particular phase of your career life is about to end. This is not a bad thing!!! What this is, however, is time to use Career Judo. Wikipedia lists this description for Judo: "Literally 'the gentle way', this ancient martial art (also known as jujutsu) makes use of the opponent's strength to overcome him, thereby making it possible for a David to throw a Goliath."

This means that, especially in a career-deciding situation, resistance and stubbornness are less potent than acceptance and a dynamic mentality. Don't deny the forces working in your life, accept them and redirect them to serve you rather than destroy you. Flourish or falter, it's your  decision.

Often, when a job change is your idea, weeks or even months have gone into the preparation to leave, granting you ample time to make ready, emotionally and financially, for the change. It's a very different ballgame when you discover that someone will be deciding this rather unexpected change for you.

So ask yourself these two questions: 1. In your specific situation, can you afford to take the time to find your ideal place of business? (How many weeks of searching can you afford?) 2. Do you have anything else in the works? (Have you been interviewing at all or recently been offered anything out of the blue?)

Now that you have looked at both of these factors logically, and with a calm mind, let's look at how they interlink. Generally speaking, if you are advanced in your career and inhabiting an executive or senior position, you will be afforded the luxury of spending as much time as you need to make the next step. On the other end of the spectrum, if you are relatively green in your career and not extremely stable financially, you may feel much more of a hurry to take the next step. Amazingly, and again, very generally speaking, it's one extreme that makes the mistake that you would imagine the other making. Nine times out of ten, an executive in a company who could very well take a year sabbatical and land their dream job, will take the very first position offered to them... Because they are successful and not used to sitting idle. The newer worker will sometimes make the mistake of taking too long because they feel overly personally jilted by their dismissal from their prior career and will idealize themselves right out of the workplace, requiring them to take a position far less opportunistic as they let the play develop much longer than they should.

So where are you? I would encourage you to log onto Monster.com and create a profile, even if the only reason you take those 3 minutes is to be able to access and take The Jasper Test (http://my.monster.com/JobStrengthProfile/Intro.aspx) an extremely in-depth and accurate career assessment that will realistically illustrate your strengths, weaknesses, likely goals and potentially very fulfilling career destinations. Then again, there's always your own subconscious mind that can (and probably DOES) constantly prompt you in the direction you "should" be going. This direction is seldom a clear or stable one. My passion has, for nearly 10 years, been ballet. Dancing it, watching it, performing it, and ultimately enjoying it from every single possible angle. This site represents a step in the direction of my happiness because its success will fund my ability to perform again, begin teaching, and eventually open a studio of my own. If you are an avid hunter who is currently wasting away as a manager for a major Retail Store, there is Cabella's, a literal two-story, 100,000 ft² monument to all things outdoor. If you are a passionate coordinator of people who got their degree in Computer Science and is now wasting away in front of a screen in a dark room all day long, you know that you're in the wrong place, and if you're reading this and any of these descriptions even come close to your situation, odds are that you've been contributing to the reasons to leave, even if you don't know it.

Your happiness is very much like a magnet; however hard you push yourself in a direction away from it, the second you stop pushing it will start pulling you back.

So, all that being said, by now you've figured out how much time you have and maybe gained a bit more insight into what direction you're going to be going. So go ahead and skip to the next section of this guide to start down your path.