When most people think of the experience of getting fired from a job, they imagine it to be traumatic and painful; the type of trauma that can send some former employees away in tears. After all, getting fired is a rejection of sorts. Not just a single person, but an entire actual organization is saying, “We think we’d be better off without you.”
There’s plenty to be concerned with after your termination happens. Your income is getting shut off. You’re likely to lose your health insurance in the very near future. You near future also is going to consist of a fair amount of time sending resumes on sites like Monster.com, Indeed.com, and Careerbuilder.com. Who among us hasn’t felt the frustrations of having to log into Taleo and enter all the information that is already laid out clearly in our resume?
But all these things considered, getting canned is not that bad. Why? Well, let’s see.
1. Do I need to state the obvious?
You can look forward to a tomorrow where you can sleep in late. That’s right. Cancel your 6:00 am alarm. It’s time to catch up on your Netflix.
2. Your morning commute doesn’t require starting your car.
After you’ve been fired, you new morning commute may only be as far as a trip from the bed to the refrigerator. Consider the money you’ll save not having to fill up and sit in traffic every day now. Your car might last a bit longer as well.
3. You Can Do Your Job Search Right.
It’s possible you’ve had a passive job search going for a while but have been too busy to dedicate the time that is required to do it right. Now that your schedule is freed up, you’re going to have the time to interview and talk with those chatty recruiters and find the right employer for you.
4. If you were let go from your job, it’s safe to say it wasn’t a good fit for you.
Maybe your style clashed with the company culture. Perhaps your boss didn’t like the cut of your jib. You might not have shown enough enthusiasm because you were unhappy about your salary or career path. Your post-termination world is a chance to correct these things.
5. It’s about TIME.
If you’ve been diligent about money and have sufficient savings, it may be the right time to take a vacation. Aren’t you overdue for some “me time”? If you’ve secured your next job that’s even more reason to take a vacation. This rare time of having a job offer in hand and not currently tied down to a job is the ideal time to take a vacation. Why not go see the world?
6. Maybe You Don’t Really Belong in an Office.
If you find yourself receiving the pink slip more often than you’d like to, you might want to consider if your career is right? Maybe office life isn’t for you. You could do like Peter from Office Space and take up a career in construction. Or you can test the waters with freelancing and try to earn location-independent income.
7. Losing your job helps you be woke.
Cringey slang aside, doing the same grind, day after day, year after year, can cause us to go on auto-pilot with each day being a carbon copy of the last. We start to go through life like zombies sleepwalking. Ever arrive at work and barely realize how you got there or remember the drive? Once your income is cut off, you’re going to need to wake up and evaluate your situation. I’m a big believer that a lot of the happiness your experience in life comes from solving problems. Well, losing your job created a problem and fixing it will almost definitely bring some joy to your life.
8. You’re most likely going to be meeting new people soon.
Phyllis from Accounting may be a lovely lady, and her stories about her cat were captivating and inspirational. But there may be room in your life for new people with new stories. If you’ve lost your job, most likely you’re going to be meeting new people. It opens the door for all the linked in recruiters, new coworkers, new management teams. And while you’re executing the job search, it’s a great chance to get out there and network.
9. It’s going to make you stronger.
Losing a job forces you to adapt to your situation. Moving on to a new environment makes you a more rounded worker with greater perspective. I’ve met people that have worked at the same company for 20 years. And that’s an admirable level of dedication. But I always feel a bit of sympathy that they’ve only seen one company’s way of skinning a cat. Different companies have different cultures and different ways of accomplishing tasks. Typically no one company does everything the best way. If you work at several companies over time, you can cherry-pick best practices and have a unique perspective that others might not be able to provide.
10. You deserve a break.
Getting canned usually gets you away from a bad situation. Many people that lose their job feel a sense of relief to no longer have to return to a workplace that isn’t appreciating them and may have become toxic. Go where you’re valued.
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