If you’re looking for a job and don’t know why you lost your last one, pause.
You have a chance to go back to square one.
“I don’t want to go back to where I’ve been. I’d rather put the past behind me. If I keep thinking about why I got fired I won’t have the courage to get another job.”
That makes sense. You don’t want to start second guessing yourself and as a consequence, lose your confidence.
“That’s right. So, if you don’t mind, step aside, I’m going to keep looking…”
Aren’t you the least bit curious? What if the same situation occurs and you respond the way you did the last time. Do you want to repeat history?
“My boss treated me unfairly. OK? This time around I’m going to be sure I get a better boss.”
How are you going to make that happen?
“I don’t know. I haven’t figured that out. I guess I’ll just go with my gut.”
How did your gut treat you last time?
“Not very well. I thought I was working for a great guy until I realized that he wasn’t telling me the truth.”
Your boss lied to you?
“Let’s just say he made me think I was doing fine. He didn’t tell me that I was in trouble until I was in too deep to dig my way out. What kills me is that I started out great. He even told me so.”
What happened?
“You’re going to make me tell this story, aren’t you?”
If you don’t learn from past …
“I know, I know. I have a bad habit of repeating behaviors that get me in trouble. OK. Here goes…
I’m a quick learner. Show me once or tell me once, and I’ve got it. I was on the job a few weeks and I was able to complete my work in half the time it took everyone else. My boss acted like I hung the moon. He bragged about me to his peers and talked like he got a star when he hired me.
Sorry to say, I get bored quickly. I just didn’t have enough to keep me busy so to occupy myself I’d read the newspaper. A co-worker said she thought I could get into trouble doing that and if I wanted something to do I could do some of her work. I jumped on it. Pretty soon I was doing my job and most of hers. She’d go home early and tend to her kids. Pretty soon the word got around that I was a soft touch. Ask me to do something and I would. After a while I was doing the work of most of the department. Instead of getting thanks and appreciation, I got more dumped on me. Pretty soon I was fed up with the whole bunch of them. I stopped doing their work, went back to just doing mine, and went back to reading the newspaper.
It wasn’t long after that I had an inkling my boss was dissatisfied with the situation. I naturally assumed that he was ticked off by the people who had sloughed their work off onto me. I expected him to lay them out and thank me for going the extra mile for the team.
I waited. And waited. It didn’t happen. I thought he needed some urging. So I started coming in late, doing my work, and leaving early. Just to prove how smart I was and how slow they were. I figured he’d give me a promotion or at least a raise.
It didn’t happen. Instead, and I still don’t get this, he fired me.”
