What's Your Viewpoint?

The other day, I was thinking about something that has never happened to me personally. I have never been fired from a job in my life. Going all the way back to my first job slopping food at the local hospital through today. What struck me about it was the fact that I have no idea what it is like to be fired. I have been on the other side of the table however. I have been the one doing the firing. In fact, over my lifetime, I have fired several people. Of course, I am sure that I was the villain in each of the firings from the point of view of the person being fired. However, they would be wrong, because I never fired anyone who did not deserve to be fired. Most of the time, it boiled down to two or three issues.

1. They failed to show up for work regularly;
2. They failed to come anywhere near their performance metrics; or
3. They were stealing something from the company.

Of course, there are those people who are victims of corporate downsizing, too. I have never been involved in one of those personally, but know people who have been subject to it. In fact, quit a few people that I know have been downsized. Some have a hard time with it and others accept it and move on.

For what it is worth, I wanted to give some advice on this subject of being fired or laid off. If you believe in God, then you have heard the quote from the Bible that "God has a plan for you". Forgive me for paraphrasing. The burning question is do you believe this? I mean do you really believe this?

If you were fired or laid off and if you immediately get mad, blame others, refuse to accept any responsibility for it, then you do not believe that God has a plan for you. It is a question of faith. You lack faith. There is no disputing it either.

On the other hand, if you look at it as part of God's plan for you, then you will realize that there are other things that you are meant to do. If so, then why spend another day at that old job? If your faith lends you to believe in God's plan for you, then you will never get mad, blame others, nor refuse to accept responsibility for your actions. Instead, you will rejoice at the new opportunity in front of you.

There are really just two ways to handle being fired or laid off. Dwell in the house of despair and dysfunction or look forward to great things.