And now I've been fired for the first time in my life.
They started me on a PIP a few months ago. I kept making a couple of small, fixable mistakes a couple times per week. They wanted to know what I would do to improve, asked what they could do to help. I honestly didn't know. They weren't the same mistakes every time. I tried reorganizing things to try to fix it, but our sales have been way up since things picked back up after the pandemic. I tried to slow down, but there was just so much to do and the office wasn't allowed to have overtime. I felt like I was looking around, drowning, with the lifeguards just looking at me like, “You could swim before… hurry up and just swim like normal. It's not that hard.”
But then I was off the PIP. They said things looked like they improved, so I was done with it. It was such a sigh of relief… until 2 weeks later. I got called into a meeting immediately Wednesday morning, and they told me I was let go. That I had made 2 more mistakes in the last 2 weeks, and it was over.
I'm not trying to make excuses. I made mistakes. Fixable mistakes, mistakes that I didn't try to hide and tried to rectify once I saw them, but still mistakes. But I'm not a machine. I'm not perfect. And dammit, I think I was pretty good at my job.
And I should've listened. I follow this sub, I saw the warnings you gave me. I even started looking for other jobs, but I just liked it there so much. I had a beautiful view, coworkers I liked, good pay, decent benefits, and a job I was comfortable with. I didn't want to go. But lesson learned, I guess.
Now, I'm asking for advice. HR/The COO said they think I'm a good person. That they're happy to give references to anywhere I apply to. My boss said the same. They also said that they won't fight me on Unemployment “if you choose to do that”. I want to believe them… but should I? My heart says that despite all this, they still care about me. (It's a small office, and we all got along very well.) But my head says I shouldn't trust these people, though I have no idea who else I'd have as references. I've worked for them for 4 years, and I can't get my previous bosses info for my last job (3 years).
And where do I go from here? I've never not had a job before, not since I was 13. And now I feel like I have this giant, black mark on me. How do I tell new employers about this? What terminology can I use to make it seem less bad? Because they always ask you why.
Sorry for the long monologue, I'm just trying to process while I'm not panicking. So, if you were in my shoes, what would you do now?