How to deal with getting fired (from Yahoo)
I just got fired from Yahoo Finance.
The long road to my quick termination started in the spring, when I grew friendly with one of the higher-ups in engineering at Yahoo. When he became my boss’s boss’s boss at Yahoo, he suggested that we meet if we were ever both in New York at the same time.
It turned out that we would both be there in December, so I asked him if he wanted to get together, and he said yes. His secretary said she’d email me the venue when the date was closer.
The week before, the venue turned out to be the Yahoo offices in New York. I thought that was weird for a casual meeting with a guy who did not even have his own office at that building. That is when I should have called to find out if we had a specific topic for the meeting.
When I got to the meeting my boss’s boss was there as well, so I knew there was a big topic. I told myself to never ever walk into another meeting in my life without knowing who is coming and why I am there. I told myself to stay calm and start looking for clues about our topic so I could mentally prepare.
They went on and on about some sort of technical problem that was happening that day. Of the three of us, two were nontechnical, so I realized this topic was selected due to nervous energy: A clue that this meeting would be really bad.
To his credit, the guy I thought I was friendly with got right down to the point: “We are not renewing your contract.”
The first thought I had was: When is my contract up?
And then I realized: Oh. Now.
The next thought I had was: Be poised. Do not break down right now.
I have been fired a lot. Sometimes it has not mattered, like when my grandma fired me from her bookstore because I kept reading on the job. Sometimes it has been a bad scene with me shaking because I was so scared – like when I was fired at Ingram Micro for using the computer for non-work-related stuff (Yes, people got fired for that in 1995.)
But I checked in with myself at Yahoo and realized that I was fine. I was not going to cry. I was actually in problem-solving mode.
So I asked why I was being fired.
Maybe you are thinking it’s because every week, 400 people leave comments on Yahoo saying how stupid I am. (And surely today’s final column at Yahoo Finance will break records for she-is-so-stupid comments.) But that’s not the reason my column was cancelled; Yahoo is about traffic, and according to Wikipedia, my column has some of the highest traffic on all of Yahoo.
It turns out that financial content gets a higher CPM (advertising rate) than career content. So while my column has a lot of traffic, Yahoo sells my career column to advertisers as part of the Yahoo Finance package, and I bring down the CPM of the whole package.
That’s a fair reason to cancel the column. And actually, if it were not resulting in a huge financial hit for me, it would be an interesting reason.
Here’s what a career advisor does when she is being fired: She tries to remember the advice she gives to everyone else when they are getting fired.
I asked if there’s another place I can write at Yahoo. This tactic is straight out of the book: Use your last moments to network, even if you are getting fired.
Here’s what my boss’s boss’s boss said: “You should write for Lifestyles. That is more women oriented.”
Immediately I was reminded of when my column was cancelled at Business 2.0 magazine. After I had recently announced that I was pregnant and said I did not plan to take any time off from writing the column.
My editor told me, as he was firing me, “Now that you’re going to be a mom you should try writing someplace like Working Mother.”
This advice from ex-bosses makes me question my own advice about getting help from people who are firing you. But still, discussions progressed at Yahoo to HotJobs, which is a Yahoo channel, and I could end up writing for them.
Also, a big trade publication called me last week to see if I want to write a column for them. The editor said that she sees me as such a huge risk taker, and she expects that the column will be a lot about that – how to take risks.
The thing is, I don’t think I’m a huge risk taker. I just choose the lifestyle I want first, before I choose my work. Lifestyle first means that I turned down entry-level bullshit jobs in favor of playing professional beach volleyball. Not because I was dying to have all my friends think I was a lunatic, but because I couldn’t believe people expect you to do mindless work after earning a college degree.
And the same is true now. I am a freelance writer because if I worked nine-to-five I wouldn’t see my kids. That’s my bottom line. There have been so many times when I’ve told myself that I can’t stand the instability of a freelancer’s life. But more than that, I can’t stand the idea that I would only see my kids on the weekends.
People ask me all the time how can they get this life that I have where I do something I love, get to make my own hours, and support a family. Seems great, right? But that life also comes with this: having no idea how I’ll get paid next. And it happens all the time.
Soon, I hope, I’ll be able to draw a salary from my startup. And my speaking career is going well enough that getting fired from Yahoo won’t kill me. But I am worried, and I think about not telling people that I feel worried because everyone who is negotiating with me now knows that money is super important to me, and I’m probably not going to walk away from an offer.
But more important than preserving an edge negotiating money is somehow documenting how hard it is to be true to yourself, how hard it is to be at risk all the time. It’s a tradeoff. Sometimes my life looks glamorous. Sometimes it doesn’t. It’s all the same life though.
I think Yahoo lost the best worker they have ever had. I am sorry for them, not for you, Penelope. You are smart and bright, and it will not be difficult to find anything better. Did you try at Google ? :)
Good luck!
When I saw your comment on my blog, I backed up on your blog to read more. Just saw this. I was overseas when this happened.
I’m going to give you a compliment that most people won’t think is a compliment, but trust me, it is. You could do worse than being the Howard Stern of career bloggers.
I’m referring to your last bit: “But more important than preserving an edge negotiating money is somehow documenting how hard it is to be true to yourself, how hard it is to be at risk all the time. It's a tradeoff. Sometimes my life looks glamorous. Sometimes it doesn't. It's all the same life though.”
Keep it real, all the time. Every time you think you should hold back about the personal, don’t. That’s why I read you. That’s why I read Dooce. That’s why Howard is worth half a billion.
Share what’s really going on. People learn, and they learn to love. It can’t fail.
Your whole decription about 9 to 5 gigs sums up how I feel about my current job. I think another job might make me feel better but I’m not for sure how.
This year I’m really thinking about taking risks and just leaving to find something more enjoyable and something that pertains to my Finance degree, but like you said and: the Internship is not an option its practically brainless time.
In the mean time keep writing and we’ll keep reading Good Luck!!
Yea Yahoo! site is overcrowed anyway. It needs a remodel.
I think the real reason they let you go is because good writing costs more than the other B.S. they put on the site.
Keep up the good writing!!
Penelope,
I know this is late but I’m truly sorry to hear your column has been cancelled. I know you are going to move on to bigger and better things.
Thank you so much for your honesty in this column.
Your career advice has always been terrible and usually wrong, so I’m not surprised that you have been fired. Also, since you have been fired so many times in the past, it seems obvious that you don’t have any ability to have a career!!
Still I hope that you find something that works for you and your family — just don’t give career advice!
come on – do you censor your comments here. The majority are sickenly positive (which doesn’t reflect reality)
Some of your posts really hit home when they are genuine and show you are a regular person like anyone of us. And this shows that even when it looks like you have everything, you have problems also. You are a very genuine person and you are truthful with the good and the bad. Great post.
Why would you write someone just to criticize them. Who does that? The thing I’ve always liked about Trunk’s post are you might not agree with them but they give you something to think about.
@ Yomama: You need to read some of my comments to Penelope if you think everything is very tickety-boo here.
We are not all sickeningly positive and we are still not “IP-banned’ which is why we return sometimes also to say well-deserved nice things.
Penelope demonstrates that when you connect with people emotionally, you can sell anything: good or bad.
Edison found , what? a couple hundred ways how *not* to make a lightbulb before he had his breakthrough. Do not give up. Get off the canvas and fight one more round.
hi penelope, i’m so sorry that you got fired. you are a great writer with many interesting ideas. although i might not agree with all of them, it does help me think about all the different issues out there. I think you have a great blog here and i really enjoyed reading some of the comments here.
Hi,
ONly less than 5% of all unemployments are performance related, rest are due to layoffs. I have been part of that statistic and have learnt to look for jobs that have relatively high Job Security Score (www.jobsecurityscore.com). For unemployed, my advice is to be calm and focused and do a strategic search for jobs in stable to growing companies and use this tool – Reemployability Score – to see which industries and locations will get you the best results. Moving all manufacturing to China and outsourcing to India is only going to make things worse for us who want to be find good jobs offering good job security.
–Ken–
“Jobs will be no. 1 issue this year”.
Hey Penelope…
Sorry I came to this article late.
I think you may find more success at “Google”
or “Women lifestyle magazines”.
Hi Penelope,
Your blog came up in a search on the impact of getting fired and it’s one of the few things I’ve read that rises above the sanitized platitudes. Thanks for this.
I’ve started a blog about my own experience as much for therapy as anything.
gettingfired.wordpress.com
Would be interested to know your thoughts :)
Thanks for the unchecked honesty. It’s a good lesson for all of us about the myth of “job security.”
Penelope, you are very courageous and despite all that has happened to you, you were very mature and dealt with all the crap that happened to you after yahoo fired you.
I can’t imagine how it feels to have 100’s of people every day post on my own column’s telling me how stupid I am. I think I would blow a gasket or two.
You have my utmost respect and admiration for what you do. You are right, family and freedom are the most important thing to you, and you are an exemplar for all of us who aspires to be as strong and happy as you. Kudos.
thanks for your article, i just got fired from work yesterday and at home today figuring out what went wrong. i also read the links to the other entries you wrote and again more thanks… it helps me see things in better perspective… i left big city job five years ago and settled in a very northern part of sweden where job choices for my skills are very rare, this decision i made prioritizing my 2 kids and husband…i am now a certified fan of your blog.
So while my column has a lot of traffic, Yahoo sells my career column to advertisers as part of the Yahoo Finance package, and I bring down the CPM of the whole package.
If that is true, it epitomizes the level of FAIL we’ve seen from Yahoo lately. Rather than make a minor structural change to their ad sales, they’d rather fire a popular writer?
Sad thing is, I can believe it. There are companies whose systems are so inflexible that they need to lose money to make money because they can’t monetize everything properly :(
if you really want to get fired do what i did…..take a piss in your bosse’s office……while he is still in it
I just recently lost my job as a Financial Adviser for Ameriprise Financial.
Oddest thing too, I was working and doing fine, even get congrats from my manager for doing a great job setting up appointments and boosting my call volume above what was expected, and after a particularly hard Friday, I went home on the weekend expecting to have a great week after 2 days of rest. Low and behold I get in on Monday morning and was met by my manager who told me they were having a conference on the conference floor. I was met by his manager, and they told me that they were going to let me go.
I asked why, and they told me about my vacation time accrued, I asked again and they told me that they would get my personal stuff. I asked a third time and they told me about the bonus I was supposed to get for relocating from Boston to Minneapolis. I tried to ask my manager when his manager was gone, but he wouldn’t say anything about it. I asked one last time and they told me they would have a cab waiting to take me home, or wherever I wanted to go, and the company would pay for it. I stopped asking then.
Now I ask myself. What did I do wrong, and how did it come to this? As I sit here in the library using their internet and power, cause I couldn’t afford to lease my own space without a job, I wonder what it all meant, and why they couldn’t and still won’t tell me why I was fired, and what should I do now going forward.
If it wasn’t for the people I’ve met along the way, I’d say that I wished I’d never seen that job offer on Monster. If it wasn’t for the great group of people I got to work with, I’d say it was all for nil. But I can’t say that, cause you can’t change the past, you can only affect the future.
Hah! That really made me laugh – thanks!
Well they still won’t tell me. Not only that, they won’t even contact me, no matter what number I call. Gotta be the most frustrating thing ever when it comes to losing your job. Though I’ve come to believe it had to be something really stupid, and perhaps I’d be better off not knowing.
I can not believe that they told you to work at LifeStyles or Working Mother, that is just plain discriminatory. Obviously America has a long way to go before women are treated with respect in the workplace.
Great post and lets face it, its Yahoo’s loss..
Getting fired is something difficult to deal with whether it is from Yahoo or anywhere else. You just need to take as much as you can with you and move on. I like how you advise to try to network even at the last minute. I think that Yahoo lost a lot by firing you but that is just my opinion. I would be upset if the reason they fired me was the CPM. Couldnt they have used another monetization model to capitalize on the visits you got?
i have never read your work or heard of you, just stumbled on this as i got fired today.
i took a job at entry level as i study for things related to it. so, that being said the job wasnt crazy important to me. I really heard ya when you talked about taking risks, I took all the professional risks i wanted at my job, always with the intent to improve myself and my workplace. it didnt work out though as i think the boss felt i was questioning her authority maybe. in anycase, i feel i really made a difference to the people around me at work, and i learnt a big deal about taking risks and when its better to keep my mouth shut!
risk takers out there i salute you!
Hi Penelope,
Perhaps right now Yahoo is trying to renegotiate about getting you back, eh? Thought I’d let you know that your Wikipedia has been deleted. For the reason of self-promotion, isn’t that interesting? You don’t have to promote yourself. People are promoting you. Perhaps that last person who would promote you is yourself.
Oh so you’ve been fired for using the computer for non-work related, lol. I got a memo for frivolous browsing. That’s something I should be proud of but hey everybody commits mistakes.
Jonha
It’s been over a year now since I left Ameriprise. It still haunts me getting fired without cause, or at least without a reason given. Now I’ve learned that you can get fired for damn near anything, especially if someone doesn’t like you. As it turned out, there was someone who didn’t like me there. Someone female who felt that I should have responded to her advances, but didn’t. Didn’t feel it was the right time/place to be doing that sort of thing. Turns out she told others there that she would do whatever it took to get rid of me. Guess she won.
Oddly enough this wasn’t the first time I’ve been fired. Won’t be the last, I’ve grown accepting of that. I always try hard to please everyone, even if I don’t please myself. In the end, I hope I was there to make a difference.
Well you’re obviously a good writer. This article had absolutely nothing to do with me and i read it all the way through. Very fluid, conversational writing. I’m a fan now.
Penelope, fyi, your blog’s hyperlinks to your Yahoo columns just lead the reader to Yahoo Finance’s generic main page now.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that are meant to be shared across the web. Shame on the search engines for no longer positioning this put up higher! Come on over and consult with my website . Thanks =)
Hey just found your blog and got fired or offered to resign. Thanks for your posts and blog. Be true to yourself always I say. May financial success and risk be yours.