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Well, I'm going to make this as short as possible but I was fired from my job. You see, myself and even coworkers of mine kept making fun of an item at our coat rack that had been there a while, we thought someone had abandoned it because they either quit or got fired. It wasn't anything expensive. To make a long story short and not thinking, I decided to go ahead and just take it home with me. Bad mistake. A week later I was called in to the office and fired. It was on tape what had happend. Even though I was off the clock it didn't matter. And the person it belonged to didn't want to get police involved so I do not have a police record. I' am from PA.
Now this is where help is needed if you wouldn't mind. And yes I do have morals, I worked for this company for almost 15 years with great evaluations. Got along with everybody.
How should I go about explaining this to potential employers? I know I was wrong and learned more about myself and what not to take for granted in life.
Any advice would be appreciated. I' am not a bad person and have a family to provide for and am scared right now.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Hopefully, your former employer, when asked would tell people only the dates you worked there and not details of your leaving. What you have to come up with is a way to say that you left that is not lying without giving them any details. You will have to list them as the previous employer, no one would hire you with a 15 year gap in your work history, and that's a lot of experience.
You could say you were looking for a bigger challenge, wanted to get into a different kind of work, or something similar, but tailor it to the job you are applying to.
Hmm--- I would not really 100% go with bisjoe's advice.
Realistically, if your future employer does a reference check or verification of employment, more than likely your old employer marked you as "Ineligible for Rehire."
That means basically you were terminated for cause.
Couple things I would do.
1. Find out who your former employer uses as their VOE. My past 3 employers used The Work Number. Back when one of my former employer's threatened to fire me due to an issue with my VP (without cause hence why when we came to an agreement-- I basically refused to go back because of the way the shady HR and VP had tried to treat me) I did not trust that employer to mark me Ineligible for Rehire. I signed up to the Work Number as a staffing agency (they didn't require anything that I could not provide) and pulled my own reference. (I had to log in as the employee to provide an okay to release my history). It cost maybe $30.00 at the time. I could verify that my former employer did not do anything shady and were honest (Eligible for Rehire, voluntary termination based on another opportunity).
2. If your employer does not use a data warehouse like the Work Number, get a friend to call HR (a friend who sounds competent and professional and preferably has some experience doing background checks) to see what information your former employer provides.
I would NOT assume any of the above. You can give a schpill about "I was looking for a new challenge" but if your former employer does a background check and sees you were marked ineligible for rehire they know you are lying and everywhere I worked would basically rescind an offer at that point as an "Unsatisfactory Background Check"
If your former employer has you marked as ineligible for rehire, the best way to handle the situation is with honesty.
You can easily craft up the truth with a slight, very slight bend. You could say, I learned a very difficult lesson. Blah blah blah, the coat, finally, I thought it was a waste for this coat to continue to take space and I took the coat to drop off at Goodwill. I did not think to ask any management if this would be okay, in retrospect, I know how this looked and it was a regrettable error. My management found it hard to let me go based on my 15 years of stellar reviews, etc etc. Unfortunately, it was my error in judgment and against company policy no matter my intentions so I was let go.
You could always try the honest route. For something like this, there are many employers who will be understanding. In fact a few may even chuckle, because they too have that random sweater or scarf that's been in the coat closet for years and nobody has claimed it. And even those companies that wouldn't see the humor in it, most probably wouldn't consider it such a serious offense as to fire someone on the spot over.
The key to the honesty-approach is: 1)be brief. Two sentences, max. Not the seven or eight sentences in your description above. 2)rehearse your brief answer until your delivery is smooth and confident. Stumbling or rambling will ruin your chances. and 3)follow it up by quickly redirecting the conversation to something else, like your fifteen years of service or what you're looking to do next, etc.
I wouldn't mention the part about you and your colleagues laughing over this thing for some time before you did the deed. That makes it sound like this was some sort of premeditated conspiracy or something, rather than a spur of the moment housekeeping act.
Thank you all for your ideas. What sucks is I feel like I' am completely on my own with this. My own family isn't helping much at this difficult time. I do realize that pretty much nobody is going to want to hire me. I feel hopeless and extremely stressed out. I' am afraid I will break down if I do get a job interview but I must remain strong. I just don't know which way to turn or how I'am going to provide for my family. I did hand in a resume today for a job that I most certainly saw myself doing but I'm going to have to try anything right now. I made my bed now must lay in it.
My advise is to capitalize on this poor economy and say you were laid off. If you have a Facebook account or Linked in account, also indicate you were laid off. Lots of recruiters look on FB to see if they can illicit info on job candidate, so make sure you look good and are not whining or confiding in people on FB. Also, if you have people from the prior job who you can get to write a letter of reference about your work deliverables, ask for them to write them for you. Do not, not, not tell your story to any recruiter or employer. There is too much competition in this troubled market to put questions in interviewers' minds. Do make an appt w/HR at your former company or have a phone conversation to get a clear understanding (if you don't have it already) of what information will/will not be shared on reference checking. Refrain from writing anything to your former employer that refers to the reason or facts around your discharge.
Thank you all for your ideas. What sucks is I feel like I' am completely on my own with this. My own family isn't helping much at this difficult time. I do realize that pretty much nobody is going to want to hire me. I feel hopeless and extremely stressed out. I' am afraid I will break down if I do get a job interview but I must remain strong. I just don't know which way to turn or how I'am going to provide for my family. I did hand in a resume today for a job that I most certainly saw myself doing but I'm going to have to try anything right now. I made my bed now must lay in it.
I think that is blowing this way out of proportion. I'm not even sure how many employers would even notice.
Don't volunteer information that isn't asked for.
There are services right here on the inter-tubes that will make the professional call to check your references with your former employer.
Treat this like any other personal situation that you would not want to discuss in an interview.
Understand you might want to be upfront but, in such a situation, might not want to be totally open and forthcoming; employers may appreciate your honesty even as they back away from hiring you!
Perhaps finesse it in some way?...
Sounds like you learned a difficult lesson...now you need to stop beating yourself up and move forward. As an interim step, I suggest volunteering. You can "give back" and start to restore your confidence in yourself. Also, if you have not apologized, please do so... and thank the person who declined to prosecute.
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