You’re Fired.
The views and opinions in this write up are reflected based off of how I felt at that time. Being fired, has literally been the best thing that has ever happened to me and I couldn’t be more grateful for it happening. Not because I hated the job, but I hated where I was in my life. I always had a goal/ objective I was reaching for but never knew what it was until I was ‘let go’.
I remember sitting there, frozen, pit in my stomach — lump in my throat. I could see in my peripherals the figure of my manager standing there clutching a piece of paper. As I turned to look at him he returned am emotionless stare and silently mouthed out the words.
“I need to talk with you.”
I nodded and he walked away and left me sitting there motionless, numb.
A voice on my headset interrupted the void
“Hello, are you still there?”
“Yes, ma’am” I responded
I was sitting in the same place I had been for over a year. In the third row of a call center. In the same uncomfortable chair that hurt my back, only 3 hours into my shift.
I could hear the voices around the room, that came from the faces of those wearing painful smiles.
“I sincerely apologize for that Mr. Roberts….”
“I will do everything in my power to resolve your issue Mrs. Bennet…”
The chattering of keyboards from my fellow co workers to the right and left of me, anxiously trying to take notes of the customer’s problems that the next poor bastard would have to deal with if the customer was not satisfied and were to call back.
“I already know what is coming…” I thought to myself
“Do I just hang up? Or do I at least try to be a good human being and at least help this person with the struggle they are facing that neither one of us can control?”
I decided to do the latter and waited until the issue was fully resolved before hanging up.
I left my final notes on my computer “Issue resolved” and stood up slowly from my desk. Even though I didn’t look, I could feel all the eyes of my fellow co-workers and friends staring at me.
I slowly walked towards my manager’s desk as he stood up and motioned me to follow him.
I tried to tell myself that what was about to happen wasn’t what I thought it was and that I was just overreacting.
I walked across the room of the few dozen robots mindlessly typing onto the computer and speaking niceties into the headset. I was one of them.
I walked past the CEO’s office of whom I finally broke out of my shell and introduced myself to the week before. The person that sat in that office was the whole reason why I worked at that dang place to begin with.
I walked past the training room of where I had spent my first two weeks really battling in my head if working for this company was really worth it.
Was it all worth it?
I was then finally led into the office of the HR. I was numb, hurt, confused, vulnerable and more than anything scared.
“At this time McCoy you aren’t a good fit for the company and we’re going to have to ask you to leave”
I felt like I was being read off my execution.
The HR representative continued “your health insurance will remain active until the end of the month, your live check was being printed and things were being gathered from my desk as we speak are there anything else that we are missing?”.
I shook my head and could almost remember hearing myself say
“dang, you guys are good at this…”
I also remember trying to at least get a reason as to why this was all happening but remembered that the state of AZ isn’t required to give you a reason for being let go.
At this point it didn’t even matter.
I was then escorted to the front of the building and gave one last look to everyone I had worked with and yelled out
“Well guys, see ya later, I got fired.”
I don’t know why the hell I said that, did that make me feel like a ‘man’?
Honestly there was only one person that I was hoping would hear me before I left, the man who I had met with a week earlier.
I walked out of the nice air conditioned low lit building into the bright-hot Arizona sun. It was the middle of July and was well over a hundred degrees.
I didn’t have a car, my wife had the only car that was running. We were in the process of selling our other car to afford the new apartments we had just moved into to escape the ghetto where we had lived and had been evacuated by S.W.A.T the month before.
“Crap…” I thought to myself.
“What the hell am I going to tell my wife?”
I paced back and forth not knowing what to do of myself and the occurrence of events that just took place.
One thing was for sure, I had to get out of this hot weather.
I walked back into the main lobby of the suite and called my wife.
I remember hearing the sadness in her voice when I called her up and simply told her “I just got fired. I’m sorry. Can you please pick me up?”
After hanging up I couldn’t help but feel sorry for myself. Thinking of what the heck do I do now. I then had the urge to call the only person I thought could help me in this time of need.
“Dad, I just got fired.”
It was a huge moment for me, I never had been fired from a job before. It felt crappy. Luckily as always, I was able to get sound advice from my father.
I was told to just take it easy and to just go home, be with my wife and when I was a little more composed call him back so he could help discuss and go over the next steps to getting back on my feet.
A few weeks passed. The shock had worn off and one thing was for certain.
Getting fired, was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I will go into why at some other time but would love to hear your thoughts.
Has this happened to you, do you think you are better off now than where you were before? Please share in the comments below.