Termination of Employment: Good or Bad?
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
–Warren Buffett
Have you ever been terminated from your employment? Kind of like divorce, if you have not experienced it, it is difficult to fully understand. Especially for long-time employees, the termination can be emotionally destabilizing. Much of my time is spent talking to people who have been recently terminated. Whether the termination was lawful or not, there is no question that a termination is a difficult experience, one that can have lasting consequences that can be both bad and good.
For some people, the termination of their employment turns out to be a good thing. It can lead to better job opportunities and even increases in pay. For example, my father was terminated early in his career. At the time, it was difficult, but as a result he joined a small restaurant company called Chick-fil-A. He went on to become the Chief Financial Officer at age 29 and served in that position for 36 years until his retirement, over which time Chick-fil-A grew from a $30 million business to over $6 billion. Needless to say, his termination certainly turned out to be a good thing in the long run.
For others, the harm that can come from a termination of employment can be career ending or limiting. For example, I have spoken to business managers who have said that they would not hire someone who has been previously terminated from a position, at least not for certain positions in the company. That seems short sighted, but in a competitive marketplace for jobs, when you have two highly qualified candidates and one that was terminated from their prior job and one that was not, which would you choose?
Many people who have been terminated from their employment deserve it. They came to work late too often, they did not meet their sales objectives, they didn’t play well with other team members, they failed at performing their job duties, they used inappropriate language with a customer, they came to work intoxicated. These people should not be surprised they got canned!
Sometimes, however, a termination is undeserved and unlawful. What I find most meaningful about my job is helping those people who have truly been unlawfully terminated or otherwise harmed by an unlawful practice. While it may not lessen the difficulty of the termination, pursuing a just resolution can help ensure long term good for that person’s career.