ranting

Not sure anyone still reads this, but I will rant here anyway.

I got fired yesterday. For real. It came out of nowhere, I walked in to what I thought was my normal weekly meeting with my boss, and there's the HR director sitting there, telling me they're making some changes to the therapist position, and one of those changes is that I'm "dismissed." They gave me a sheet describing what I've been doing wrong, mainly that they think I'm not doing enough to push the kids to work on their issues, and that my skills and experience aren't a good match for the severity of the kids we work with. I've never been written up or given any kind of formal warning about my job performance before this. I got an above average rating on my yearly evaluation in May. However that evaluation was written by my old boss who loved me. But she quit in june and was replaced by a new boss who apparently does not love me and thinks I'm a bad therapist. I had to clean out my office and leave immediately, I couldn't say goodbye to anyone. My coworker, who is black, has also been written up twice in the last two weeks and is about to be fired also. She's convinced the agency is discriminating against non-latino people, and wants me to join her in a lawsuit against them. When I was fired they offered me a $1200 severance package if I sign a contract agreeing not to sue them. The fact that they offered me that shows that I do probably have grounds to sue them, or else they wouldn't be bribing me to shut up. However, I'm not really a vengeful person and would much rather just take the money and move on, instead of putting effort into a lawsuit that probably won't go anywhere. I don't want to work in a place where I'm not appreciated anyway.
Obviously I was crushed when this all happened, but I'm trying to look on the bright side now. I hadn't been happy with my job for the last few months anyway, I didn't like my boss, the commute and the hours were killing me, and I agree the kids deserve a better therapist than me. So I'm excited to look for a new job where I fit in and can use my strengths and excell. Ideally with a much shorter commute, or a commute into the city so I'll have a reason to then move into the city. I'm also kinda excited about all this free time stretching out in front of me, I'll finally have time to go to the gym everyday, clean the house, hang out with people on weeknights, and all the other things I never had time for before. So, I'm kinda at a crossroads in terms of what to do with my life, but hopefully it'll work out for the best. Let me know if anyone knows of any social work jobs.

About interviews

The most important thing I've learned about interviewing for jobs as a result of my recent experiences with employment and graduate school applications is this:

If the position doesn't suit you well, then your likelihood of getting hired is slim to none and, even if you do get hired, your ability to do that job or your quality of life may suffer simply because the job isn't appropriate for you. The best way to gauge just how fitting you are to a particular position is honesty. When you're being interviewed, how often does it feel like you're lying? And not just embellishing your enthusiasm; I mean truly lying to the potential employer. For instance, a potential employer asked me a general question during an interview the other day that would've been easy for me had I not already planned my graduate school career. He asked, "Are you here for a job or a career?" I knew the answer he was looking for, but I hate lying. Therein lies the cognitive dissonance that caused me to pause long enough for him to assume my answer was "job" even if I said "career." In essence, when you lie to a potential employer for the sake of getting a job, you're not just lying to them; you're lying to yourself. After that interview, I realized I'm not that interested in getting another job, but I am interested in starting a new career, one which I am pursuing through grad school this summer.

I realize this information doesn't help in all circumstances, especially with an economic recession bearing down on us, but it's still important to consider when you're interviewing. Do you want the job desperately enough that you're willing to blatantly lie? Do you realize that such blatant lies in the initial hiring process are representative of your possible, eventual, exponential disdain for the job? And do you know this dishonest attitude hurts not just you but also everyone with whom you'd be working?

Just some thoughts worth pondering...