Getting fired

[Jamie (K)]

How do people in your country feel about getting fired from a job?

Is it considered a big catastrophe, and does it cause problems in the person's life? Is a person who has been fired stigmatized by future employers?

Or is it considered just a temporary setback -- or even good career feedback? Is it something that people often laugh about before moving on to find a better career?

Do people in your country who have been fired get scared, or do they go on vacation and relax for a couple of weeks?

In the United States, many people who are fired go on to find much better positions with other employers. I even know a man who was fired once, and then a few months later was offered the job of the man who fired him!

What do you think?

[Ginevra]

I may speak for my experiences, here in Italy.
It is very difficult to find another job, mainly if you have been fired, because the interviewer thinks that you did not make your job properly, or a slacker.
There is another important difficulty and it is being a woman.
People think that a woman works less than a men, because she will soon marry, if she is young, she will have one, two babies - and therefore she stay at home for 6-9 months...and then babies alwyes get problems, such as sickness, paediatrician visits first and school problems after...
Men have less difficulties, when they are quite young.
Another great problem raises when you lose job and you are around 45-50 years of age and you were not a manager.
It doesn't matter your past experience: there are always a lot of younger people, who may be paid less than you and - may be - do the same job.
I know many persons who lose their job and they have to accept an underpaid one, and very different of the previous one, despite their experience.