Going to work prepared to be fired

A couple of weeks ago I received a call from a very distressed friend. The environment at his office had been spiraling rapidly downward for several weeks. He was concerned because it had gotten to the point where his boss was loudly discussing firing employees over the phone with his office door open. Talk about a hostile working environment!

My friend was clearly stressed and asking for advice. I told him the single best piece of job advice I had ever received: Go to work every day prepared to be fired.

His response: “What the hell? Why would I do that? I’m depressed enough about my situation!”

I clarified my comment: don’t go to work expecting to be fired, go to work prepared to be fired. These are very different approaches.

Expecting to be fired means that you anticipate the next time your boss stops by your desk he’s delivering a pink slip.

Prepared to be fired means that if your boss does deliver a pink slip, you smile and walk out, knowing that it doesn’t matter anyways.

How do you prepare yourself to be fired? There’s two different, but not mutually exclusive, ways to prepare yourself. The first is financial preparedness and the second is mental preparedness.

Financial preparedness

Get your finances in order. It will provide peace of mind and assurance that you know what you can live off of if your employment situation changes. I have found the website Mint.com to be very helpful in personal financial organization.
Save money. This most obvious thing to do to prepare yourself for losing your current job. It lets you know that you will be able to pay your rent and buy food. However, some of us simply cannot do this. You may be saddled with student or credit card debt. If this is your situation, be smart and start paying down your debt rather than saving money.
Review your current expenses and prioritize. What are you spending money on that you don’t care about? What can you spend less on? Start with recurring monthly expenses. Do you really watch HBO and Showtime, or cable for that matter? Do you need that tanning salon membership or can you attend the YMCA rather than the fancy gym that costs $200 per month? Next, review daily items. Can you eat dinner at home more often or bring your lunch to work? Could you drink regular coffee rather than your Starbucks latte? (I recommend cutting it out altogether)
Consider what you can sell. You could sell the second TV, your stereo you use once a month, or downsize your car. Figure out what you could sell those items for and tally up the total. That amount could likely get you farther than you realize! You can even enter these amounts into Mint.com.
Figure your minimum monthly living costs. After cutting out the unnecessary items and downgrading the extravagant ones, how much will it cost you to live per month? For those in debt, figure out what your minimum monthly payments. Keep this number in mind and review it often. It will likely shrink as time goes on and you realize how little you really need.

Mental Preparedness

Your job doesn’t define you. You’re a banker? No you’re not. You’re a person who is employed as a banker. If you no longer working in banking (or whatever line of business you work in), you are still you! You may find that your circle of friends changes slightly, but this is probably a good thing because you will be ridding your life of leaches and time consumers.
You have marketable skills. No matter what you are doing now, someone, somewhere, working in an industry you’ve never even considered, needs your skills. You will be able to find a job, but it may not resemble the one you have now.
Don’t let pride kill you. You’ve built a career in your line of work, but we already established that your career or job doesn’t define who you are. Starting a new job in a new industry is an adventure, not a failure.
What’s the worst that could happen??? If you get fired, what is the worst thing that could happen? You end up flipping burgers part time? You need to sell your house or move into a smaller apartment? So what?!?!? You can use this time to start the business that you always wanted to run, take Chinese classes, learn to cook, and look for a new job.
Look on the bright side. Bartending could be a blast. It might be nice to work road construction for a few months. You’ll get to be outside and those guys just stand around most of the time anyways.
Give it a try. What skill do you have that someone would pay for? Can you tutor a high school student in math or a foreign language? Can you paint a portrait or construct a marketing plan? Can you balance a checkbook or cook? Can you use Twitter or Facebook? Spend some time and post some ads on Craigslist or Elance. You may be surprised that people will pay you for your services! Maybe you can even use this as an opportunity to make some extra money – money you can save in case you do end up unemployed.

Going to work prepared to be fired will make your job a far less stressful experience. You may even find that you are more productive at work as you no longer care about office politics or fighting your coworkers to maintain your job at the expense of your dignity.

Following the above recommendations also serves the purpose of helping you consider how much money you will need to make as an entrepreneur to allow you to quit your job.

Always have a plan, prepare yourself and never fear being jobless again.