by Paul Lines

Created on: August 07, 2007

When standing outside the place of employment from which you have just been fired, with a box full of personal belongings cleared from your desk, the last thought that will come into your mind will be "this is an opportunity for change and growth". Your mind at that time may be filled with hurt, despair and anger. It is only later, once you have had time to assess the events that led to your being released by your former employer, that you may find this cloud really does have a silver lining.

However, before this stage is reached there is a need to assess and evaluate the reasons for your dismissal. For the purpose of this exercise it will be assumed that you have not committed a criminal offence such as physically or verbally abusing your work colleagues, damaging company property or a serious breach of company regulations. Thus you may have been fired because you did not perform the tasks you were employed for, were not perceived to be a team member or the business you worked for is downsizing. At this stage it should be said that the most important element in this assessment is to be honest when making the appraisal.

Let us look at these reasons in more depth and turn the negatives in positives, using these positives to provide opportunity and growth for your career.

Underperformance

Not performing well in a particular work role can result from a number of factors, some of which may originate within yourself and others that arise from the conditions that exist within the workplace environment. If they come from within yourself you need to look at whether your reasons for taking the job in the first place were sound. Maybe you just took the job for the money at the time and have never quite gotten around to sorting out your future career properly. Or, possibly you have never really liked the work that the job entails. Finally, perhaps you are simply not up to the tasks that have been set for your role. From the external aspect, perhaps it was an environment that you were not comfortable or the hassles of the journey to work made you less keen to be there.

Team member

There are likely to be situations where a worker finds himself or herself unable to get on with other people in the workplace and thus their lack of cohesion with other members of the team is noticed. This can lead to a position where, for the sake of the majority, you are the one that ends iup being shown the door.

Downsizing

Some firms will fire people simply because they are downsizing. This may be

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