#JobStruggles #CareerConfusion #WorkplaceChallenges
Hey everyone! I could really use your insights on something that’s been bouncing around in my head lately. 🤔
So here’s the scoop: about six years ago, I had a job where I excelled. I took on a challenging project for a really tough client and, guess what? They were thrilled! 🎉 But just a few days after I got back, my boss called me in and dropped the bomb that I was let go. I wasn’t heartbroken—I was fresh out of school and looking for new opportunities—but I was totally baffled. If I impressed a difficult client, why did I get the boot?
Fast forward to about 16 months ago, I landed what I thought was my dream job. Things were going smoothly until I made a small mistake—I didn’t clean up properly after a busy shift. Out of the blue, I was suspended for three days. I’m just bewildered. 🤷♂️ I mean, I see colleagues making bigger mistakes with no consequences at all. Why am I being singled out?
This makes me wonder—am *I* the problem? Is my personality just not a good fit for certain work environments? Or perhaps, I’m not as competent an employee as I believed myself to be? I really can’t figure it out. 🌀
**I’d love to hear from you all!** Have you ever faced similar challenges at work? What did you learn from your experiences? Any tips or advice on dealing with workplace confusion? Let’s talk about it! 🙌
Probably your personality or looks? Do you have something off about your personality that others may have mentioned? Are you non-conventionally attractive?
You say you don’t know why you were suspended – what was the reason you were given? Did they just say “you did x so you’re suspended. That’s the end of this conversation.”?
I really like that you are asking these questions, that means that you have curiosity, and this can probably be fixed.
You really need to brace yourself and open up to hear the truth. You probably need to get a good mentor (free or the cost of lunch) or maybe a counselor to help you suss-out what the real issue is. In any case, you need someone you can trust and who can give you independent feedback on how to navigate your professional growth with this company.
You can only control your own behavior. Now you know that “minor mistakes” are punishable by suspension. Don’t be defensive or complain, just change your behavior going forward.
If you see someone else not being punished, go home and write it down, including details and the date. A set of such “contemporaneous notes” may be useful if you are terminated and feel it’s unfair. (I am not a lawyer, I’m saying what I would do because I think it might be useful.) Don’t tell anyone you’re taking these notes, nor threaten a lawsuit or anything else. Just have the evidence of “selective enforcement” ready, just in case. You also might reflect on these notes and discover that your mistakes that result in discipline are not actually the same as the unpunished mistakes. Who knows what the data will reveal!
If you’re consistently being treated differently, and everyone there is unfair and out to get you, you have to evaluate your options. Suck it up and ride it out? Leave for another company in your field? Get training/education to change careers? All tough options. I hope it doesn’t play out this way.
You may believe yourself a good employee and in fact you may be a very good employee. But, your bosses do not seem to think so for one reason or another.
Heya! It really depends on the industry and the specific place where you worked. Of course, you should take into account your own behavior, but maybe you can also consider an industry change? You mentioned that you’re young, maybe you haven’t found the right place for you? Don’t despair, we’re evolving until we die and it’s much more common to get sacked these days than you think. 🙂 All the best and cheer up, it will get better!
Do you think this is about the mistake itself, or, more specifically, about your performance when it comes to making these types of errors?
Based on your description, it sounds like your current workplace culture strongly values character skills, such as self-awareness. Considering how crucial these interpersonal competencies clearly are for your particular role, now would be an ideal opportunity to focus on your growth in these areas.
I’d recommend candid self-reflection. Rather than comparing yourself to your co-workers, scrutinize yourself instead. By honestly assessing your own capabilities, dig deeper internally to ask: Are there disparities between how you’re evaluating your performance and how others are perceiving it? If so, what’s potentially influencing the gap(s)? When executing your respective job responsibilities, are there noticeable differences between doing so at the expense of your own resources and shared resources? How are you really balancing competing priorities to ensure everyone wins, and not just you?
wtf industry are you in? This makes no sense without more Info. Are you a masseuse or a travel in home nurse or something? If it’s something medical field yea you can be fired for any little thing.
Yes, you are the problem. It sounds like you aren’t willing to take feedback. Even in your response here you are defending your actions by saying you were juggling tasks and by pointing out the actions of your coworkers. Not being able to take feedback is going to really hurt you in the long run. Maybe you could talk to someone you trust about if they think you could improve in that area.
I’m really happy to see you getting some quality feedback. Here are my two cents:
1) contact your previous supervisor or one of your coworkers. Tell them you’re looking to continuously improve and would like some feedback. You’re not asking for specific reasons why you were fired, but rather on a feedback on your work ethic, personality, team dynamic, etc. Take notes.
2) if you’re looking for a mentor, find somebody who is doing what you want to do. Reach out to multiple people in that field. Somebody with enough ego will take time to speak to you.
Don’t whine or complain at them.
Always be seeking improvement. Look up or develop your own questions before you speak to them. The best interviewers find ways to encourage the other person to talk about themselves.
Read:
Crucial Conversations
Thanks for the feedback
From your replies I can tell you that it’s you and these books, if read and applied, will help you.
I’ve been there.
Take a cold, hard assessment of yourself. Take responsibility for anything you done wrong, a bad attitude, whatever. The accept that some people are just dicks.
Lick your wounds, apply yourself, and keep trying.
Good luck.
It may vary at your company, but employees should not typically be aware of corrective action regarding other employees. You say these things that others are doing go unaddressed, but how do you really know? It isn’t really for you to know unless it’s an entirely different corporate culture than the company where I work.
this is going to sound harsh, but are you annoying to work with. People greatly under estimate how important it is for your coworkers/boss to like you, its more important than performance if you’re you’re 50% better than everyone else and make everyone 5% worse or like 1-2 ppl leave because of you. you’re a net negative.