The Day I Stopped Being Afraid to Get Fired!

Fired But Make It Peaceful

The day I got fired, I didn’t spiral. I didn’t call a friend, pour a drink, or rush to rewrite my résumé. I went to yoga. And not in a metaphorical, “I found my center” kind of way, I literally went to yoga. Because when you’ve worked in HR long enough, you stop believing in the myth of control. You know how this game goes: a company will praise you one quarter and “restructure” you the next.

I remember rolling out my mat, taking a deep breath, and thinking, this is what freedom feels like. Not the kind you post about, but the kind that quietly lives in your chest when you realize nothing external can shake you anymore. Getting fired didn’t feel like failure.

The Lie They Sell You About Job Security

Here’s the truth they never print in the handbook: job security doesn’t exist.
What they call “stability” is often just dependency in disguise. You show up early, skip lunch, answer late-night messages and somehow convince yourself that loyalty equals safety. But loyalty in corporate America is a one-way street.

Getting fired shattered that illusion for me. It taught me that the only real stability is self-trust knowing that if everything collapsed tomorrow, I’d still know how to rebuild. That kind of security doesn’t come from a paycheck. It comes from surviving something you once thought would break you.

HR Knows How the Game Works

Let’s be real, HR professionals see how the sausage gets made.
We sit in those rooms.
We’ve read the emails.
We know that most “performance issues” are code for “political decisions.”
We know when it’s about optics, or someone’s ego, or a leader trying to protect their narrative.

So, when it happened to me, I didn’t take it personally.
I knew exactly how it went down, who lobbied for it, who stayed silent, who sent the “thinking of you” text to cover themselves.
It was oddly liberating.
Because when you understand how much of corporate life is theater, you stop mistaking their performance for your purpose.

When You’ve Been Fired, Fear Loses Its Grip

Before that day, I used to make decisions from fear…..
fear of being next on the list, fear of disappointing someone, fear of losing my title.

Once you’ve seen your name on a termination letter and lived to tell the story, you start moving differently.
You stop saying yes to nonsense just to stay “safe.”
You stop performing exhaustion to prove value.
You stop begging for belonging in rooms that were never built for you.

The fear of getting fired used to control me.
Now it can’t touch me.
Because I’ve been there.
And nothing about it was as terrifying as I thought, it was just honest.

The Best People Don’t Fit into Broken Systems

The longer I worked in HR, the more I realized: companies say they want change-makers, but they reward compliance. They say they want innovators, but they fund predictability. They say they want leaders, but they promote followers.

So, when you challenge a system that thrives on silence, don’t be surprised when it spits you out. That’s not failure, that’s alignment. You weren’t built to make broken things comfortable; you were built to make new things possible. Sometimes getting fired isn’t rejection, it’s redirection.

The HR Plot Twist: When the Enforcer Becomes the Example

The irony of being fired as an HR executive isn’t lost on me.
I’ve been the one writing the scripts, sending the invites, coaching managers on “difficult conversations.”
And then one day, I became the subject line.
It was humbling, hilarious, and holy all at once.

But here’s the lesson: there’s nothing like living through your own policies to remind you that HR is still human. It taught me empathy in a way no training ever could. It made me a better leader, not because I avoided pain, but because I sat in it and still chose grace. And that’s the kind of growth you can’t get from a promotion.

TL;DR: Fired, Free, and Finally Unbothered

Getting fired stripped away everything I thought I needed — the title, the team, the illusion of stability, and left me with something way better: peace.
Now I don’t chase approval, permission, or performance reviews. I build what’s mine. I work with people who align with my values. And I’ll never again confuse someone else’s company with my purpose.

So no, I’m not afraid to get fired again. If anything, I’m afraid of staying anywhere that costs me my peace. Because once you’ve been fired and found freedom, you stop surviving your career and start owning it.