OK, I’m about to admit I watched one season of “The Apprentice” with Donald Trump. It wasn’t bad. But not quite enough to keep me coming back.
I was, however, intrigued when Trump fired his blonde sidekick Carolyn Kepcher last month. There are tons of rumors flying around about the reason for the axing – Her head got too big for her breeches; Trump wanted to bring on his daughter Ivanka; or the popular, Trump was jealous of Kepcher’s success.
What ever the reason, it just shows you that anyone can get fired, even cool cucumbers like Kepcher, whose on air persona of confident Carolyn made you almost think she was invincible.
One of the best things that ever happened to me in my career was when I was fired from a restaurant trade publication. The magazine was letting a few people go as part of general budget cuts and there I was, last person hired. The editor who dropped the ax on my head was the nicest guy ever. I swear his eyes welled up when he gave me the news. He felt so guilty that I used him even years later for job recommendations, even though I had only worked for him a few months.
The main thing I learned from losing my job was that there are no guarantees. I had little savings at the time and struggled paying rent so when I finally got a gig, about two months later, I changed my ways. I started putting aside some money just in case, with a goal of having at least three months pay in the bank when another pink slip slipped into my career mailbox.
Now I’m sure Kepcher doesn’t have to worry about rent these days. Word is she’s getting $25,000 a pop for speaking engagements and she’s also doing endorsements. And she even wrote a book “Carolyn 101: Business Lessons from ‘The Apprentice’s’ Straight Shooter”, which I’ll plug here just in case I’m wrong and she’s eating Ramen noodles for dinner tonight.
Maybe her next book should be “Carolyn 101: How to Survive ‘You’re fired’”
September 25th, 2006 at 10:26 am
I love how they’re both being so cordial about it, too. WOnder what they say behind closed doors?
But you’re so on the money: THere’s a lesson in almost all firings.
If memory serves,I was ill-suited for the couple jobs I got fired from. But I learned lessons each time. If something isn’t right for you, don’t stay, no matter what the reason. Money can seem like an over-riding concern, but ..there are ways around it. Line something up before you leave, work 2 jobs for awhile to save a sum to tide you over…sell the mink (just kidding).
It would be nice if there were no surprises, if you always know when the co. is not doing well, or if your boss thinks things aren’t going well with you. I hated performance evaluations, but there IS one truism surrounding them to be had: Nothing should be a surprise. You should have enough input every so often that at a 6-mo. or year-review nothing someone says should be a shock.
September 25th, 2006 at 10:47 am
I’ve been trying to remember if I’ve ever been fired, and I think, quite honestly, the answer is no. But I do recall quitting a temp job I hated - folding shirts and sweaters at the Windsor Shirt Co. The boss was a jerk and I quit, along with a coworker, the night before “Black Friday” - the biggest shopping day of the year. The jerky boss was so surprised and sputtering mad, it was truly one of my favorite work moments ever.
Annabelle Gurwitch wrote a great book about getting Fired. Here’s a link: http://www.firedbyannabellegurwitch.com/press.cfm
September 25th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Oh yeah, there is something great about quitting. OK. People can share their quitting or getting fired stories.
And man, do I hate job evaluations. I am now working for myself, in part, because of job evaluations. I think they are among the most demeaning career tools ever invented. If bosses can’t share their thoughts about your work face to face on a daily or weekly basis in an honest fashion they should not be bosses.
September 25th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
The lesson I learned from being “offered another job, but not taking it” (oh well, I guess I was fired), is that a job is ONLY a job. It surprises me that there are so many people out there that allow others to walk all over them. That has never been my strength:-) In order to reach some type of happiness in your life you have to keep your head high and stick with your values and beliefs. Why follow a bad leader… when you can follow your own head instead? Good for “Carolyn”! She can now be free to grow! The only thing I wish is that she would not be so damn polite about it.
September 25th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
no need to explain . how u got fired eve. it is a badge of honor.. to say u were the last person hired , budget cuts… like it wasnt your fault.. dont worry i am sure it wasnt..
but maybe if u played ball a little better , your nice boss would have thought you the next greg ip… or better yet annie coulter…
i think u should blog about these idiots , who wont show their names in their book written about anne coulter. like they are afraid . she speaks the truth , and puts her name up for everyone to see. and these 3 woman go anonymous , and their publisher agrees with it.
liberal chickens..
September 26th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Not sure what the last comment had to do with your blog. How does this guy go from people getting fired to Ann Coulter? I must have missed something. It’s fitting because Ann Coulter misses a lot too, like integrity.
As for being fired, I have not been fired though I haven’t had all that many real jobs. Being a freelancer and an author has a long list of traumas all its own. Given the number of self-employed folks in the world, it remains amazing to me how biased the world is against the self-employed. It’s a tough road, not for the faint of heart or wallet. I doubt Carolyn will have much trouble parlaying her fame into dollars. She should try living on freelance pay from the Times.
September 26th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
dear glenn .
maybe this is why u are unemployed, or a “freelance writer”. u need to read between the lines a little better..i was making a distinction between eve a person i love , who is a liberal writer, and writes for the times, and two conservative writers who write for the wall street journal. as for carolyn, i know her , and u are right she will have 3 or 4 board seats that wil generate hundreds of thousands of dollars. so she will be fine . probably make millions from her book that people who actually watch apprentice will buy.
u must write for the times , as about 15 % of america is self employed, which is not alot .. but tax incentives are geared toward them..i think the world IS biased toward them.. i am self employed to a certain extent so i am unbiased ..
i bet i know ure view on iraq..
annie coulter rules.
September 26th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
getting fired is one of those life altering events like the death of a loved one or divorce, that we hopefully won’t have to go through but probably will before we pass on. The above article deals with a sharp woman into self promotion that gets terminated from Trump’s apprentice. Therefore, i see the reference to anne coulter as perfectly fitting. the comment accusing her of missing things like integrity concerns me and is indicative of the political bent that plagues journalism today. i guess with all the mediums today like newspapers, tv and computer blogs writers have to “attract ” their desired customer base , like the rest of the retailers in our society. i miss the good old fashion days when journalists kept their political views to themselves and insulting fellow journalist was anathema. if you want to talk about missing something, ask the New york times about Jason blair who actually missed being there altogether or how Dan Rather let his personal vitriol against President Bush put a story on CBS that the editor of my high school paper wouldnt allow to be run.
September 28th, 2006 at 1:08 am
I was fired once in my life, by a 24-year old man who had been made the president of my company by his father, even though his only prior job experience was as a rugby coach at an all-boys prep school in England! The son was threated by me, a strong woman, even though he had been the one to hire me. While I hated working for this man, I was crushed that he fired me. It was about power not performance. At the time I was the bread winner in the family because my husband was in law school, and we had just bought our first house. I didn’t know what to do. I had always worked for a company. I was new to the state and had no network to tap in to. But even with all those things working against me, I got out there and networked, started doing some freelance work until I found a “real” job, and then realized that freelance work was actually a real job! I felt so much more freedom then when I was under the corporate thumb! Being fired forced me to move in a direction that I would otherwise never have done, and stretched me beyond where I thought I could go. I have since returned to the corporate world, but with the confidence that if and when I want to or have to leave, I’ll do fine on my own. Getting fired was actually a positive career milestone for me.
October 10th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
I once was working at a place I didn’t like. The boss was very lazy and totally unknowledgeable. How she got into the profession was beyond all of us. Her suggestions were bad and when they were brought to the client, their reaction was “this stuff is unprofessional!” Ironically, we had to “please” her bad tastes before we went to the client…it became a game of mental tennis.
Anyway, I started to look for another position. Lo and Behold! What do I see in the Sunday NY Times? MY JOB! Fortunately, I lined something better up quickly and accepted it. Ironically, this boss wanted me to fill out a self evaluation and gave me a Friday deadline to do it.
On Friday, I went into her office, (evaluation in hand as blank as she gave it to me) and handed her a resignation letter.
She said to me “This is so unprofessional and lacks class. How dare you resign this job”
I pulled out a piece of paper, a nice little square ad cut out (remember my job listing before) and said to her…
“Well, how long were you going to give me?”
She dropped her eyes to the ground, turned white as a ghost (Casper by comparison looks like he came back from a tropical vacation) and said in a voice so low, you need dogs’ hearing, “Two weeks”
Glad I left. She was later fired.