Rebellious Thoughts #79 - 🤘 I Got Fired on My Honeymoon

Hey!

In line with last week, let me share another story from my past - this is even earlier and it was categorically a precursor to the way I think about careers and roles and jobs today - I’ve written about this previously here.

It’s the early 2000s, I’ve been at Lonely Planet for 12 months - I just got married to pretty wife and we were in Tahiti for our honeymoon.

I got an email saying “call me when you get a chance”.

Must be important, so I figured a way to get in touch.

It all sounded weird to me - there was a restructure and a bunch of roles were made redundant, and my role was impacted… and I was like “so am I fired?”

And the answer was “well no, it’s your role and the change and the blah blah blah”.

I wasn’t about to dig into the details when the crystal clear waters of Moorea were waiting! So I left it at that.

When I got back to work a week later, there was chaos.

Tears, fear, conversations about unions, clauses in our enterprise agreement, lots of closed-door meetings.

I went to HR and they explained to me what happened. This was my first corporate role and my first restructure ever, so I was a little lost.

All I knew was Argentinean law, which is more like the US.
Australia is a bit more employee-centric.
So when they finished explaining how the restructure impacted roles, including mine, and my role was removed from the structure, which in turn meant I didn’t have a job, I said: “I was right! I’m fired!”

“Well, not so fast! Because of the restructure, there area number of roles available for you to apply so we are going through the consultation process now, which means you are not technically fired”

Confused again, I was like “wait, so you fire me and then let me apply for new jobs?”

“Yes”

Oh my god, these are the nicest people ever! - I thought - I was so excited - I didn’t understand why people came into HR and were upset afterwards! I felt it was like winning the lottery - here are a bunch of roles inside a company you understand well, you can apply for any of them, my odds are really good to get something good!

So I remember distinctly asking them to show me the list of available roles - I scanned them to see if any was familiar or perhaps aligned to any of my skills. Nothing jumped out. So I asked, “which roles are at my level?” They drew a line and said “any of these you definitely can apply”

So - I went away - thought about it - and of course me being me - applied for a role that was two levels above the level they suggested! Hahaa - I figured that the role was new, so there were no clear expectations for it. If I can define what the role should be and what to expect of the candidate, then I can set the bar higher than anyone else and position myself as the choice.

So I did a lot of research, a lot of thinking, a lot of mind mapping, a lot of moving around the business talking to everyone about their expectations of this new role and how they saw it adding value. In the end, the interview process for the role felt insignificant cos I had already pitched my solution and expectations to everyone and anyone who was keen to listen to me.

Meanwhile, everyone around me was upset, sad about the restructure, always looking for someone to blame, to complain to.

I remember close friends upset at each other cos one was in charge of the restructure the other one was affected by it, and of cours,e instead of assuming good intentions, the affected person assumes their friend did something wrong or malicious to impact them.

I was going around the office reminding people that the people making the decisions to fire people don’t do it cos they love it, they don’t want to hurt their friends, there must be a reason we don’t understand. Plus there’s heaps of other jobs to apply for! Just apply for another one or even one outside Lonely Planet - Australia has heaps of work!

Back yourself, you are more valuable when you are positive and have a mind of abundance than negative and a mind of scarcity.

10 years later, it was my turn to drive a restructure and to make roles redundant.

It wasn’t fun…it was very hard…it was sad….but I saw the same behaviour occur again. People lost, blaming others rather than taking responsibility for their own careers. That’s why every time I’ve ever hired someone, I ask them to start looking for a job…that’s why I remind all my employees to always look for jobs and keep an eye out in the market for new opportunities. It’s good to stay fresh, to know what the market is looking for, to retain your autonomy and independence and depend on no one, to have a plan B and C and D, to feel strong and valuable and knowledgeable, and I can keep going.

Never stop looking for a job or for the next opportunity or for the next business idea or partnership or side hustle.

Love

Gus

Ps: I did get the job! :-).

Below is the podcast I recently recorded, just in case you missed it last week - it’s fun to relax and dive into topics I can’t during keynotes - have a listen, tell me what you think!

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