How to Prepare If You’re Worried About Getting Fired

Lessons from my own termination

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

“Hey Todd. First, I should say Kathy is on the line.”

“Cool! Hi Kathy!”

There was an enormous pause as my brain scribbled arrows between Kathy, the connection to her last name, her position in the company, and why in the world she would be on this call with my manager that was supposed to be a one-on-one meeting.

Finally, lightning struck.

“Oh. Kathy from HR”

“Yeah.”

I grabbed a pen and paper as fast as I could. There were exit interviews, leftover sick days, and a 401K account to consider. My mind wouldn’t be able to keep any of the details in. All I could hear for 15 minutes was the blood rushing in my ears. I wrote it all down, but I don’t remember the conversation.

That’s not entirely true. I remember one sentence very clearly.

“Your position has been eliminated.”

It’d be nice to assume this whole COVID thing is over, and that if you are still employed at this point, you’ll stay that way.

Sadly, your comfort may be naivety. I confused the two and soon found myself sticking ID badges in a box for Cindy from UPS to ship off. Cindy made my day a…