Fired: What to Remember During the Last Days

Things are rough for in-house people all over. Many of my friends have been let go, and I myself have recently moved back into the wilds that is freelance design. I can’t tell you about how not to get fired. I can’t tell you how to make yourself a value add to your company. If you’re doing your job as a designer, you’re already adding value. This post is about what to do when you’ve been given The Talk.

For the sake of time, I’m going to assume it’s a done deal. Your boss has called you in, told you that you were out, and that’s that. HR has come by and told you about things like COBRA (your health benefits, not snakes) and unemployment options. Your severance package, if there is one, has been laid out, and it probably has some strings.

You’re Out. Now What?

Assuming you weren’t fired because you were lazy or because you were a bad/risky employee, this time is very important. This is when you’ll set the tone for how you finally leave, as well as how people remember you. As much fun as it would be to go into a friends office and bitch about how you were just let go for no reason, I suggest keeping quiet. If you were in a small company, chances are you worked with everyone on some level. The boss/owner/whoever is in charge will make an announcement to everyone. Going around and talking about how much of a jerk they are only burns the bridge of a very important reference that you’ll want in the future. You can get angry at home, or better yet, at the bar. If you’ve got good work friends, you may be able to score some free drinks out of this.

Lists and Lists of Lists

If you were a productive designer, you probably had some projects going on at the moment of termination. Make a list of each of your currently pending projects, what stage they are in, and what actions are left for completion. The number one thing to keep in mind is to not burn the people you work with. All of these people, from your boss down to the newest account rep can be great references. How you act under this kind of pressure will be etched into their minds. BE PROFESSIONAL.

Designers are usually pack rats. We collect stuff that we see and that we use. Our computers are full of old concepts, and our sketchbooks are full of ideas that never made it. Gather all of that up. Make a list of each project that you had a big impact on. That, combined with a list of your favorite projects that just looked neat, will be the portfolio material you take with you.

Another thing that designers collect is fonts. When you come into a new position with your own fonts that you’ve collected, make sure to take them with you. Many font sets are copyrighted, as such, you can’t just leave them installed on the computer where you were working. That’s illegal. Make a list of the fonts that you’ve installed, and then remove them from the system. This way, anything that’s yours stays with you, but you won’t screw over the next person who needs to edit that Illustrator file.

Know What You Signed

In a lot of industries, you have to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). In a broad stroke, these say that you won’t talk about or show the things you worked on while you were there. No giving away the secret recipe or the magic formula. Generally, NDAs have an out. Be sure to read your NDA, and any other agreements you’ve signed to make sure that by showing material in your portfolio, you’re not opening yourself up to being sued.

The last NDA that I signed stated that everything I worked on was considered ’secret’ unless the owner of the information published the information, or made it available to anyone not under an NDA. So, once the owner (in some cases a client) had made the final product public, then I was free to showcase the product as well.

If there’s something really nice that you want to show off, I suggest taking it to your boss and asking them if it’s ok to include it in your portfolio. In the event that the piece contains sensitive corporate or financial information, offer to substitute dummy numbers or sterilized text in place of sensitive data. Unless you’re a copywriter, you’re showing off the design of the piece. The text isn’t relevant.

Another type of agreement to be aware of is a non-compete. This usually applies to account executives and managers, but depending on the industry you’re working in, it’s possible that you might be limited as to which types of industries you can go into when you leave your employer. It’s a good practice to have the HR or office manager make you a copy of everything in your employee file. Especially documents you’ve signed.

Taking Files?

It’s safe to assume that most of your design work is going to be done on a computer. As such, you’ll probably want to take your source file with you. This can get tricky. The electronic versions are just as much your work product as the physical versions. Keep in mind that when you clear the list of things you want to take, be sure to include the final electronic versions of your work. I took the Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and PDF versions of my work, but left the source text files and excel spreadsheets. Make sure to keep any linked stock images, or external source files that you’ve made to help out with your work. These scratch files are work product and part of your contribution.

Things to Avoid

DO NOT DELETE ANY FILES! If, on your last day, you get caught deleting work files, you’ll probably loose your severance, and may be liable for a law suite. You’ve probably got a bunch of personal data on the machine, but before you go around deleting everything in sight, make sure that you’re covered. It’s safe to say that your next job will not like it if they know you went out and deleted everything on your system before you left.

DON’T BE A JERK! I’ve said it before, but it’s important: these are your references now. Talking bad about the bosses, the other co-workers, or being rude to clients is the kind of thing that will get you horrible references in the future. At this point, your goal needs to be to get as much as you can from your now former employer. And this includes glowing references about how much of a professional you were, even under those most trying of circumstances.

DON’T FORGET TO GET A LETTER! Since you’ve spent the past few days being a professional, now’s a great time to get your coworkers and managers to put it in writing. While you’re still fresh in their minds, have them put down their thoughts about you in a letter of recommendation. Going to another job interview and saying ‘yes, I was fired, but not for being a bad employee. In fact, here’s a letter from my former boss telling you how great a guy I am.’ This will say a LOT about you as a worker if your former employer is saying good things about you.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is, keep your head on. Don’t let emotions and bad ideas screw up your future. As a designer, you’re probably used to dealing with rapidly evolving situations and fluid goals that shift from day to day. Approach this as a design project. The more time you bitch, the longer it takes you get back to being productive. If you leave with your reputation in tact and your based covered, then you’ll be miles ahead of others who weren’t so smart.