I'm hoping this is the right place to ask, I was referred to this subreddit from a friend.
About 2 days ago (its Sunday, currently) I had a meeting with my Team Lead. That meeting turned out to be a laying off meet. When asked why, it was apparently because, and I quote, “Most of the time when the big boss walks in she sees that you're always doing nothing and on your phone”. I say apparently, because I've (to my knowledge) done nothing wrong. I always do whatever do my work on time, sometimes even ahead of time. I've even worked on weekends and holidays just for the sake of finishing my work so that there are no old work left when its a fresh new work day.
When I tried to defend myself saying that I'm always busy until the evening (6-7pm, which is coincidentally, usually the time our boss would be in the office, if she does show) and all my work have always been completed on time or ahead of time; He mentions that the decision is final because it came from the boss herself, and that there was nothing we can do about it.
So now I'm out of a job by the end of this month. I've since sent out a dozen of applications but a thought had been gnawing at the back of mind. How do I even begin to explain this situation to my next employer? When I told this to a close friend of mine, he suggests that I beat around the bush and give a fake reason as to why I'm laid off. His reasoning being that, it doesn't matter if that was really the real reason or not, from another's perspective; it looks like I'm deflecting and giving excuses. He has a point, so now I'm stumped. I dont know what I should say when I will be inevitably asked, why was I laid off? I've never felt this lost. I was just doing my job…
I'm hoping you guys could give me advice on this
*Notable thing(s) to mentions (I'll update this, I guess, if anything more comes up in the future):-
- My team lead is 100% on board on being on my referral contacts list on my resume. He's also on board with writing a recommendation letter, but I have yet to receive said letter and my upcoming interview is next week.
EDIT: Thank you to everyone who has offered their insight, opinions and advices on what to do next, what not to do and general opinions over the situation. Special thanks to u/JustmyOpinion444 and u/xpacean for what to say in my upcoming interviews in regards to my, “special” situation.
I spmehow have over 10 lined up next (I guess God (if there is one) threw me a bone lol). I had 3 interviews today where I tried out the reasonings given (being honest outright and telling there was a downsize) and it went very well. I'm waiting on 1 offer from 1 of the 3 said interviews while the other 2 are TBC for a second interview. Once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for giving me insight on this matter.