It never feels good to lose a job, even when you hated it. A mountain of stress and tough decisions always follows a job loss, and it can feel overwhelming. Below are some tips to help you cope with this loss, from just dealing with the stress of being in between jobs to help navigating Pennsylvania’s at-will employment system.
Learn Why
When you learn that you’ve been let go, one of the first questions that you ask needs to be about why you were fired. While not all bosses are required to tell you why you were fired, many will and you can use this information to help you in the future.
For example, maybe the company is going through budget cuts and you lost your job as a result. This knowledge may make getting unemployment benefits easier and may ease your mind about your own work performance.
Other possible reasons include poor performance, of course, violating company policy and more. Sometimes the reason won’t make sense or you won’t be told at all. When this happens, you may want to contact a lawyer to see if you were wrongfully terminated and what the next steps are.
Apply for Unemployment
Applying for unemployment benefits may feel like admitting defeat and therefore be a crushing blow to your ego, but it shouldn’t be. Don’t think about it like you’re giving up because you’re not; giving up would be lying in bed doing nothing until you lose it all. No, applying for unemployment benefits is instead like asking for help.
The payments you’ll receive won’t be a lot but they will be at least enough to keep you going as you search for another job. So long as you worked constantly for the previous one or two years, received a certain income and are currently looking for a job, then you should be able to receive at least a little bit of unemployment.
Begin Job Hunting
Modern job hunting is a lot different than it used to be. In the past, you could walk into a location where you wanted to work, hand in your resume, and maybe even get an interview. Now, though, a lot of the steps that lead to you getting a job are done online through job boards and company websites.
There are benefits to this system: you can apply for multiple jobs at once from the comfort of your couch, easily compare wages, and hear back relatively quickly about whether you got the job or not. There are a lot of downsides as well, though.
“Ghosting” from employers is common, meaning you won’t hear back maybe at all even if your proposal was rejected; some job listings are fake and the company may not actually have an opening like what they advertised; and more are all likely to happen during your search, but don’t be discouraged! You will eventually find a job; it may take a while longer than you’d prefer but it will happen.
Expect and Plan for Stress and Grieving
Losing your stable income is a scary experience because you now aren’t certain when your next paycheck will arrive. There are ways to relieve this stress though and it all starts with giving yourself time to grieve. Even losing a job you hated can be a sad experience, so let yourself work those feelings through.
Once you’re feeling a bit better, start job hunting as this can also help decrease your stress levels. Hearing back can take some time so be sure to find something to do while you wait. Anything from exercising to finding a new hobby can help distract you and even improve your mood during these stressful times.
Consider Hiring a Lawyer
While sometimes a job has to let you go for reasons that are above-board, such as budget cuts, this isn’t always the case.
It’s not uncommon for you to be fired for a variety of illegal reasons, like you getting injured on company property and seeking compensation for it or because you became pregnant. If you think this happened to you then you should seriously consider hiring a lawyer. Employment lawyers typically work similarly to personal injury attorneys where they only get paid when you do on a successful case.
You don’t pay a cent for an unsuccessful case, so there’s no harm in at least talking to them about it. They’ll go over your contract, your testimony, all written information about your job that you have, the company’s policy and more to make sure you weren’t wrongfully terminated. If they think you were then prepare yourself for a potentially long and stressful legal battle.
