My boss invited me to lunch. What are the odds I am getting fired?

[Anonymous]

Only ray of light is that at least you are being let go because the whole ship is going down. Truly it is nothing personal. It is pretty easy to explain to a prospective employer and to have the personal refrence of a CEO is pretty damn solid.

I know, so cliche and cheesy, but in my heart I always believe that when one door closes another even better door opens up.

[Anonymous]

Sorry OP - I didn't post at the start but have been watching this thread. I'm so sorry about your job. You are absolutely allowed to apply for unemployment. Fire up your resume, your LinkedIn profile (link to your boss who said you can use him as a reference), etc.

My fingers are crossed that you're not out of work too long and find a job quickly.

[Anonymous]

Now you are free to do what you were meant to do, to meet your destiny! This job was just tying you down. Don't squander this surprise opportunity. Good luck and post back with updates about your new successes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now you are free to do what you were meant to do, to meet your destiny! This job was just tying you down. Don't squander this surprise opportunity. Good luck and post back with updates about your new successes.

Agree but I also imagine OP is still in the sick to her stomach phase. Is money super tight for you, OP? It didn't sound like you were landing that much money in the first place, so I agree with this poster, move on to bigger and better things.

BTW, use your boss as a reference if you must, but I've been in business for 19 years now, managing for about 14 of them, in different capacities for a large and two small companies, and the way your boss handled it was EXTREMELY poor form. Extremely. Agree wholeheartedly with poster above, he's not fired, he's just, as they say, working it.

Horrible what he did to you. Hope you managed to sleep this week despite it being drawn out so horribly.

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry, OP. This happened to me last year b/c my industry has tanked. My boss came up from main HQ and let me go in a 3-minute conversation totally out of the blue...on a Monday morning. I CANNOT imagine having to sit through an entire lunch date to discuss this after wondering for days about why you're going to lunch - you're letting me go, so what's to discuss?

I agree with PPs, this was not handled very professionally. The conversation should have been about you, not about him and his problems, or complaining about the company. Was your layoff effective immediately, or was it 2 wks. notice? It is flattering and a good sign that he wants to continue working w/you in some capacity, and I am glad to see you are willing to do so. If people offer references, def. take them up on it. If you were friendly with anyone else at work, ask them if they'd give you a reference too. Don't burn any bridges.

One thing I did, on suggestion of a friend who'd recently been through this, was I immediately wrote an e-mail to pretty much everyone I knew in my personal life, saying "Hi, just wanted to let you all know I was downsized and am looking for xyz type of job, please let me know if you know of anyone hiring, etc." A lot of people were really helpful with contacts, ideas, etc. You never know who might know somebody. LinkedIn is great too. Get your boss and others to "recommend" you on LI, people really do notice that!

I can't stress enough that you need to give yourself some time to lay low and process this - even if you weren't crazy about your job, it is still traumatic and a loss, not to mention extremely disorienting to be home all day when you're used to working. So cry, or be angry, or whatever you are feeling - once that is out of your system, you can look ahead. Get a daily routine going with regular exercise and pleasure activities, and take time to think about what you really want out of your next job. And I assure you, you have better things ahead.

File for unemployment ASAP. I don't know which state you're in but google your state unemployment office and you should be able to do everything online. It should kick in as soon as you are no longer being paid by your employer. There may be some kind of waiting period of a week or two, but then it will start coming. I don't know if you have HR in your co., but definitely talk to them about being paid for unused vacation time if you had any. And definitely print what you need and get your files off your work computer ASAP before they lock you out of it. Help yourself to office supplies too

I did end up going back to work for my old co. as an outside consultant on a couple of projects, and starting my own consulting business (which had limited success - there is just no $$ in my field right now). I just landed a great term position which I hope will lead to even better things.

Good luck to you! Again, I'm sorry this happened but eventually you will be glad it did!