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As employees, specifically responsible employees, we sometimes tend to put up with and endure jobs and careers that we might not particularly care for. Maybe you are working in an industry in which you have absolutely no interest. Perhaps your boss is total and utter a**hole, who makes your life a living hell, or the work/life balance you so desperately desire has never been, and shows no signs of being within reach. There are multiple reasons why people who dutifully show up at their jobs day to day secretly pine to not be there.

About a month ago, my friends and I received a text message from one of our girlfriends informing us that her job had just let her go. She’s a doctor, works at multiple hospitals in three different states and actually hated the job she was just let go from. Initially, she expressed emotions ranging from anger to uncertainty, which then turned to feelings of inadequacy and questioning if she even still wanted to work in medicine.

After letting her rant for a while, one of us asked her: “Hold up. Is this the job that you hated? The one in which you did not get particularly like your boss?” She responded in the affirmative, and we quickly surmised that her being let go was a blessing in disguise.

How is getting let go a blessing? Despite any ill feelings towards your job or your boss, the responsibilities of life may keep you in a situation you either do not have the time, support or finances to up and leave. This seems to be the most consistent reason many people stay at a job longer than they wish. Off top, the mortgage and rent aren’t going to pay for themselves, your kids need new everything, and your parents may be falling ill. How can a person even think to leave a job they hate with all of this going on?

I was always told by my mother that I should never leave one opportunity without another one being present. Well, let me tell you, it never worked out that way for me. You see, I was always let go. Maybe I secretly put out in the universe that I hated my job, or didn’t belong there for one reason or another, but whatever it was, I was always “miraculously” relieved of my duties when working at a job or for someone I did not care for.

Sabotaging an opportunity for the sake of being relieved from it is not ideal. I am not suggesting that one should not do their job or become insubordinate to their superiors at work all for the sake of being let go. What I am suggesting is, if, despite all of the hard work, time and sacrifice you have put into a job, you are somehow let go from it, even if you still have bills to pay and things to do, don’t count it all as a negative.

Sometimes we have to be pushed out. I have always been pushed out, and what I have learned from being pushed out of my comfort zone is that there was something new for me to learn and experience.

I knew the work I did for a particular boss was mundane and did not fully utilize my legal career. I had just purchased a home and had bills. Wouldn’t you know, nine months after purchasing my first home, I was let go and unemployed for over a year. Despite the feelings that surrounded this lay off, which included those of inadequacy, failure and embarrassment, I ultimately landed a higher paying job with much more responsibility. I was now the supervisor and not the supervised. I was now in a role I would not have had a chance to experience had I not been pushed out.

It is hard to see and/or grasp the bigger picture and blessings that may surround such a devastating blow; however, I challenge those who have been laid off, fired and/or “let go” from a job they secretly hated to ask themselves if this was just the push you needed to get out of the comfort zone of complacency.

Rashida Maples, Esq. is Founder and Managing Partner of J. Maples & Associates (www.jmaplesandassociates.com . She has practiced Entertainment, Real Estate and Small Business Law for 9 years, handling both transactional and litigation matters. Her clients include R&B Artists Bilal and Olivia, NFL Superstar Ray Lewis, Fashion Powerhouse Harlem’s Fashion Row and Hirschfeld Properties, LLC.

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