How to Handle Getting Fired

[ugly_man]

How to Handle Getting Fired | Mises Institute

The act of getting fired underscores the existence of the freedom of association, which is the key to social peace and a foundation of a growing economy. Do

mises.org

Wired Magazine this month offers a few pointers on how to disguise on your resume the fact that you have been fired. The main point is to come up with a negotiated settlement that has you resigning from your job. Many employers will go along with these because they fear litigation. There will be no “wrongful termination” lawsuits if you are on record as having left voluntarily.

I don’t dispute this advice. It seems fine enough. But it doesn’t deal with the much more important matter of how to handle being fired from a psychological and sociological point of view. The truth is that getting fired is one of the best things that can ever happen to you, if you look at it the right way. There is no reason to consider it the end of the world. It can be the beginning of great things.

The key to understanding this is to zoom in on the nature of a labor contract. It is an agreement based on the expectation of mutual cooperation that betters the lot of both the employer and the employee. In a world without scarcity, the employer would rather do all work alone and not have to hire anyone. This would save in resources, and, in any case, most employers figure that they can do a better job than anyone than they can hire, and, often, they are right.

The very existence of institutions that are larger than sole proprietorships grows out of the need to divide the labor. Even if the employer is the best sweeper, web developer, accountant, and marketing expert in the world, it is to his advantage to specialize in one area while farming out the other tasks, even if these tasks will not be done as well by others. Every employer, then, regards the hiring decision with a combination of dread (no one wants to waste money!) and relief (finally I can get something done around here!).

It is critically important for the employee to understand that he is doing no favors to the employer by working there, nor is the employer to be regarded as a generous distributor of funds, much less someone who is under some positive moral obligation to dish out. The employee is there because the nature of the world and the ubiquity of the scarcity of time and resources make it necessary. In order for there to be peace amidst this arrangement, there must be mutual benefit, always.

When that mutual benefit ceases to exist, it is in the interest of both parties to dissolve the relationship. The employee can leave for greener pastures. In the same way, the boss can stop paying the employee in exchange for services that he no longer believes are a benefit to the company. To be fired only means that the employer takes the initiative in ceasing to fund further engagement. Both or either side of this exchange could be wrong, of course, but all human decision making is speculative, and we can only act on the information we have.

Why would anyone want to hang around at a dinner party at which he is not wanted? It’s the same way with a labor contract. If you aren’t wanted, you should walk away and consider yourself better off as a result. No lawsuits, no complaints, no bitterness, no acts of vengeance. Just a clean and happy break.

Doesn’t the reason you are fired matter? Not really. The employer doesn’t always know the reason. He just knows it is not working out from his point of view, and he is perfectly within his rights to terminate the prior agreement.

Let me tell a quick story from my own work history. When I was in clothing sales, I was one of the top-ranked salesmen on the floor, but I didn’t always see eye to eye with the owner-boss. One Christmas season, he told all the salespeople that all alterations had to be promised out three weeks from the date they were sold. That struck me as outrageous.

Sure enough, within the next hour, I had a customer come in a buy seven pricey suits, on the condition that all alterations were to be done within the week. Now, I should have gone to the boss and asked him. He would have said no, I’m quite sure. So I didn’t: I went ahead and promised the suits out. At closing time, the boss found the tickets and threw all seven suits at me and demanded to know “who is going to alter these?”

I said, “I will,” and I promptly hit the sewing machines and began to sew. I had them all finished by 9pm that evening. I brought them into him and said that I would deliver them to the customer personally in the morning. My boss said, that’s great, and added: “after that, I won’t need your services anymore.”

 

[crazyguy]

How to Handle Getting Fired | Mises Institute

The act of getting fired underscores the existence of the freedom of association, which is the key to social peace and a foundation of a growing economy. Do

mises.org

Wired Magazine this monthoffers a few pointers on how to disguise on your resume the fact that you have been fired. The main point is to come up with a negotiated settlement that has you resigning from your job. Many employers will go along with these because they fear litigation. There will be no “wrongful termination” lawsuits if you are on record as having left voluntarily.

I don’t dispute this advice. It seems fine enough. But it doesn’t deal with the much more important matter of how to handle being fired from a psychological and sociological point of view. The truth is that getting fired is one of the best things that can ever happen to you, if you look at it the right way. There is no reason to consider it the end of the world. It can be the beginning of great things.

The key to understanding this is to zoom in on the nature of a labor contract. It is an agreement based on the expectation of mutual cooperation that betters the lot of both the employer and the employee. In a world without scarcity, the employer would rather do all work alone and not have to hire anyone. This would save in resources, and, in any case, most employers figure that they can do a better job than anyone than they can hire, and, often, they are right.

The very existence of institutions that are larger than sole proprietorships grows out of the need to divide the labor. Even if the employer is the best sweeper, web developer, accountant, and marketing expert in the world, it is to his advantage to specialize in one area while farming out the other tasks, even if these tasks will not be done as well by others. Every employer, then, regards the hiring decision with a combination of dread (no one wants to waste money!) and relief (finally I can get something done around here!).

It is critically important for the employee to understand that he is doing no favors to the employer by working there, nor is the employer to be regarded as a generous distributor of funds, much less someone who is under some positive moral obligation to dish out. The employee is there because the nature of the world and the ubiquity of the scarcity of time and resources make it necessary. In order for there to be peace amidst this arrangement, there must be mutual benefit, always.

When that mutual benefit ceases to exist, it is in the interest of both parties to dissolve the relationship. The employee can leave for greener pastures. In the same way, the boss can stop paying the employee in exchange for services that he no longer believes are a benefit to the company. To be fired only means that the employer takes the initiative in ceasing to fund further engagement. Both or either side of this exchange could be wrong, of course, but all human decision making is speculative, and we can only act on the information we have.

Why would anyone want to hang around at a dinner party at which he is not wanted? It’s the same way with a labor contract. If you aren’t wanted, you should walk away and consider yourself better off as a result. No lawsuits, no complaints, no bitterness, no acts of vengeance. Just a clean and happy break.

Doesn’t the reason you are fired matter? Not really. The employer doesn’t always know the reason. He just knows it is not working out from his point of view, and he is perfectly within his rights to terminate the prior agreement.

Let me tell a quick story from my own work history. When I was in clothing sales, I was one of the top-ranked salesmen on the floor, but I didn’t always see eye to eye with the owner-boss. One Christmas season, he told all the salespeople that all alterations had to be promised out three weeks from the date they were sold. That struck me as outrageous.

Sure enough, within the next hour, I had a customer come in a buy seven pricey suits, on the condition that all alterations were to be done within the week. Now, I should have gone to the boss and asked him. He would have said no, I’m quite sure. So I didn’t: I went ahead and promised the suits out. At closing time, the boss found the tickets and threw all seven suits at me and demanded to know “who is going to alter these?”

I said, “I will,” and I promptly hit the sewing machines and began to sew. I had them all finished by 9pm that evening. I brought them into him and said that I would deliver them to the customer personally in the morning. My boss said, that’s great, and added: “after that, I won’t need your services anymore.”

dnr of the decade