Thursday, October 25, 2012

What happened?

I've been spending the past day and a half trying to figure out what exactly happened. Why was I let go?

I was not given a reason when my former boss said they were moving on. The CFO of the company was there as well and briefly explained some benefits I would receive, but her body language and tone of her voice told me that she was not pleased with what was going on (I did not get the chance to get to know her too well, but we were friendly and she helped me out when I needed her assistance).

In addition, I was too blindsided to even ask why I was being let go. I turned over my keys, indicated where a couple of things were, and that was it. Halfway on the drive home, I just said to myself 'What the hell just happened there?' I've been thinking the same thing ever since.

Were there performance issues? None that I can think of. Had there been any, I would have expected my former boss to say something like 'Hey, I really need you to work on X' or 'You are struggling with Y, let's figure out a plan to get better in that area.' But there was none of that.

I spent about four months there, but those four months were spent cleaning up tens of thousands of square feet of indoor and outdoor space, rearranging floor space and improving the pricing strategies all in order to make things better for the staff and customers.

I'm just trying to figure out what to do going forward. Do I try to contact my former boss and obtain an explanation? One of my former staff members called me yesterday to see what happened, and I told him I didn't know. He indicated to me that my former boss gave them 'some politically correct answer that didn't make any sense' and that 'everyone was wondering who was next' and 'morale was terrible.'

How do I also frame this in cover letters and resumes? It's one thing if there was a reason given and I could explain that I learned from Z event or A reason and so forth. But there is none of that. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear from you!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

What's next?

It's been a tough two years for me professionally.

I left my corporate job to focus solely on my business.

My business failed shortly thereafter.

After that, I found a great volunteer gig for a local affiliate of a well known non-profit. It even turned into a part time paid position! But it was short lived, as my wife and I had decided to relocate.

However, I turned that part time position into a management position with the same non-profit, just a different affiliate where we moved to. Awesome! Things are looking great!

Yesterday, I was informed they would be moving on without me. I wasn't given a reason why. I was too blindsided to even ask.

I've learned a ton about business and myself along the way, but I just don't know where to go from here. I know there are brighter days ahead.