What I learned after I was FIRED!

I have, in my work history, been terminated, fired, let go, whatever you may want to call it, but, I was

fired. If I was ten, fifteen years younger at the time, I would had made a big scene, caused a lot of ruckus on social sites, I would in turn, would have been devious.

To be honest, I did not, for a lack of a better word, worry about it. Yes, I emailed the CEO, after I learned a few things behind my termination. I was not looking for a shoulder to cry on. Basically, it was to let him know that a mistake was made.

What I learned since then, it is my fault that I was terminated. I have this unique ability to step out of the circle and see the big picture. I am a team player. I do not like it as this shift versus that shift. I know what a goal of a company is and I intend to help, help to achieve that goal. That is where I failed. For a team to work, everyone has to work together, be as one.

When I was first became a supervisor, I was under a wing that pretty much kept the bar set pretty low for me. I also did not have the support staff that I needed. I am the type that learn from failures and if I fail, I will learn from it, but I will not fail at the companies expense.

The company at that time was recently purchased by a much larger corporation, so the traditional "family" company is giving way to a corporation and the mindset is a difficulty to change. Before, the company was all about the employees (because to was employee owned) and now, it had to think about being a corporation, about making money.

When a new shift was created, I was put at the helm. I immediately knew the weaknesses and started to address them. What I ended up with was basically a team of workers that no one else wanted. I was set up with a recipe to fail from the start, and I knew it, but I went ahead and made lemon pie from the lemons.

I knew the numbers from the start on my shift was going to look bad from the beginning. One, was from the type of employees I had, and two, how the scheduling of the products had worked out. What I had not figured into the equation that would eventually lead to my demise was first and foremost, lack of communication. Third, I am a team player. What I should have done was to worry about my own shift and not help out anyone else. I was making myself look bad because I was making everyone else look good.

This is what I learned:

1. I am a team player. I will help to do whatever I can for the good of the company/corporation.
2. I do not complain about compensation. What I do is I use the learning experience from what I learned to apply it to my next endeavor. I know my worth. I also know if I am going to get what I want or settle for something less.
3. You always have to watch your back. The person or persons you are helping to cover will look better through the eyes of upper management than you will. If there is going to be cut, no matter what you have done in helping, if your shift looks unproductive, you will be the one to go.
4. Fight for what you know and what will work. I stood idly by being told how something needs to be done when in fact I knew what really needs to be done. I was also told what I could and couldn't do when I knew better.
5. Do not let other's take full credit for a good day of production if you had a hand in it. This is where the team player came in play. I stayed in the shadows when others was taking credit.
6. Always assume that you are being stabbed in the back. I was taking honesty at face value.
7. Do not change, Be yourself. When you try to change for a corporation, you start to loose face of who you really are.

After a termination, your self esteem takes a hit, you feel worthless. I take it as a lesson. I am not the one that lost out. I am free and I can choose what I can do.