Getting fired is like a rite of passage.
Especially in today’s economic climate, if you haven’t been fired or laid off at least once in your professional career, you can consider yourself one of the lucky ones.
How bad is it out there for the unemployed? Web Watch knows a number of people who have had difficulty trying to find a regular full-time job in their career of choice – some of whom are going on five years of unemployment.
Five years is a long-time to sit there and wonder when the economy is going to turn around – but frankly, the issue could be just as likely that the job those job-seekers are looking for isn’t available. There are plenty of jobs to be had — the problem is whether those unemployed are willing to make an industry change, go back to school, or even move across the country if a job prospects are more available elsewhere.
Five years is also a long time to sit there and ponder as to exactly why you were the one on the chopping block.
It’s quite possible that you were really good at what you did. Well-liked. A productive part of the organization.
But sometimes businesses need to make decisions – sometimes difficult decisions – in order to contain costs or move in a different direction. And it’s times like this that you should look at what the REAL REASONS PEOPLE GET FIRED are.
First, there are four categories of employee that every manager looks at. Which one of these four are you?
- Young, works hard, low salary
- Young, adequate worker, mid-range salary
- Middle-aged, adequate worker, high salary
- Older, works hard, high salary
In the analysis of layoffs, that first category is practically always safe. Young, hard-workings – and cheap – employees will almost always be spared the axe.
The most common person being fired? The middle-aged worker who doesn’t work that hard…. or the younger worker who also doesn’t work that hard.
The common thread between those two? They’re not hard workers.
So at least we can confirm that if you work your butt off, you’re less likely to be fired compared to others in the organization. It’s not always the case, but it certainly can’t hurt your chances of keeping your job benefits going.
The reasons given in both cases are either, “the young one can find work more readily”, and “the middle-aged worker brings a ton of experience to any project”, so also could find a job rather quickly.
In other words, it’s not always the person with the highest salaries that are destined to get the boot. Sometimes management looks at your future job prospects when making that type of decision.