Positive attitude can turn dismissal round

Thirty minutes on the internet is long enough to discover a plethora of professional services is available to people who have been wrongfully dismissed, but next to none exist for those who have been rightfully dismissed.

Amy was 19 when she was sacked from her job in an Auckland factory. "They were really nice about it," she says. "They said I wasn't fast enough. I was upset but I had thought it might happen because I wasn't keeping up."

Often, a dismissal is not the result of an illegal action on the part of the employee. It may result from incompetence - the employee having bitten off more than they can chew - or the employer finding the employee is unsuited to the work. Dismissals can also occur as a result of personal problems such as alcoholism, depression and gambling, which lead to poor work performance or unacceptable behaviour at work.

Whatever the reasons for a dismissal, a fired person without job prospects becomes someone without an income and someone at risk of personal and relationship problems.

Dismissals can lead to divorce and depression.

So what can someone who has been fired do to pick themselves up again? And how do they explain the past to a future employer?

Bill Walmsley, a director of Life Coach Associates - which provides life and career coaching to individuals and to welfare beneficiaries through a contract with the Ministry of Social Development - has coached many people who were rightfully dismissed.

"They are often very ashamed and can find it hard to face their friends and family," he says.

"It is also a big fear for them to approach another employer - their inner script goes: 'Who is going to want me now I have been fired and how can I lie on my CV?"'

However, Walmsley says dismissed employees often make the best future employees because, if they have learned from their dismissal experience, they often want to repay a new employer for giving them a second chance.

"Most employers just want to know people have learned a lesson. I know a number that have hired ex-convicts and had them turn out to be the best employees they've ever had."

The ability to learn from a dismissal appears to be key.

A spokesperson for the Gambling Helpline says people with personal problems that lead to dismissal move forward only when they start being honest about their problem. "There's denial, denial, denial; then they face the fact they have a problem and deal with it."

"A dismissed person's chance of being re-employed depends on their attitude towards themselves and how realistic they are about what they were fired for," says Walmsley. "If they were fired for stealing, a new employer is probably not going to put them in charge of anything financial."

He says once dismissed people have sorted through personal issues, the way to seek a job is through personal networking, volunteering and building relationships rather than traditional job hunting.

"Recruitment agencies tend to look for red flags. And if you answer an ad and don't tell the employer about your dismissal, they may dismiss you for not revealing it."

Walmsley says the recently dismissed need to think about why they were dismissed, address personal or skill problems that contributed to it, and then be kind to themselves.

"We tell them to decide what they're passionate about and help them get involved with that type of work, even on a voluntary basis. They need to get out and talk to people, gather information, make contacts, and keep building relationships."

This is all good advice of course - and what dismissed person doesn't want a coach in their corner? But at $95 an hour, who can afford personal coaching when they have just been fired?

Walmsley says some people take a "mortgage holiday" and find a way to pay for counselling or coaching, others have their coaching paid for as part of Work and Income schemes.

Amy, who lives with her parents, says a few months of financial help from Work and Income helped her make the transition from dismissal to fulltime employment after five months out of work.

"It was difficult at first. I knew the first job wasn't right for me but it was still hard to keep going. Support and encouragement from my parents helped a lot," she says. 

Firm encouragement from the whanau can only be good. But what if the fired person has a partner, children and a mortgage?

All the moral support in the world won't change the reality that Work and Income can impose 13-weeks' stand-down before allowing someone who has been dismissed to claim an unemployment benefit. How long does it take to find another job?

Walmsley says that depends a lot on the attitude of the dismissed person and what they choose to say about themselves at job interviews. Getting another job may take a few months or several years.

"It's okay to acknowledge a dismissal but don't give it too much air time and don't berate yourself.

"I had a guy who had been dismissed from a senior management position and was absolutely blindsided by his dismissal," he says.

"When he went for interviews he would go on and on about the dismissal and would put himself down at the same time. We got him working again when we convinced him to say 'I had this incident happen but I have learned from it'."

How do I pay the mortgage?

1. Make sure you have actually been dismissed before not turning up for work. Get it in writing. Legal proceedings can occur when an employee walks off a job after a misunderstanding. The employer then claims abandonment of employment.
2. If you have no grounds to fight your dismissal, you have the right to ask your former employer for a written statement setting out the reasons for your dismissal. You must ask for this within 60 days of leaving and the employer must provide it within 14 days of being asked. Then the details of your dismissal are not left to the imagination of future interviewers.
3. If you do not have any savings, contact Work and Income to apply for an unemployment benefit while you look for work. Because you were dismissed there may be a 13 week stand-down period. This may be waived if you apply to attend six weeks of re-compliance activities. You have to attend the full six weeks.
4. A Work and Income benefit may include family support payments and an accommodation supplement. Some banks allow you to take a "mortgage holiday" for a set period as a result of unforeseen events. Take this if you can.
5. Work and Income may help you find employment by placing you on courses (including life and career coaching) or by presenting employment opportunities. If personal problems contributed to your dismissal, be open to receiving free counselling.