Dealing with being fired from the last job in the next interview

I was a Certified Nurse Aide at a hospital for 1 year and 6 months, I never made it to my 2 year anniversary. I was fired 2 days after my 1st and only family emergency.

My sister crashed her vehicle into a tree going 60 MPH in a residential neighborhood. I received a call while at my housekeeping job, she may have done it on purpose. I called my hospital job crying while driving to the downtown hospital, one of my 3 department managers stated if I didn’t come in….I was fired, if I came in emotional….I was fired.

I came in 5 minutes late and with proof. I had to wait for the Chief of Surgery. I showed a manager and she said it was all acceptable with all my proof (pictures of the crash, Letter from her Surgeon and Nurse). I was fired the next day by the director. The manager I spoke with wouldn’t help. The director refused to meet with me and security wouldn’t let me into the hospital.

I’m having issues explaining the situation in interviews. I feel like I should have fought it better, but was distracted with my sister’s accident and watching the 4 kids.

What should I do?

4 replies
  1. Penelope Trunk
    Penelope Trunk says:

    You don’t need to say you were fired. You can say you left the company to take care of a family issue, and now the family issue has ended and you want to go back to work. Millions of people get fired every year and don’t say it in an interview — both things are true: that you left for a family emergency and that you were fired. You are under no obligation to tell both answers.

    If someone asks if you have ever been fired, say yes and tell them about a time when you were 15 so it won’t matter to them. They are unlikely to ask if you have been fired any other time when you reached back to your days as a teenager.

    Good luck!

    Penelope

      • jessica
        jessica says:

        My take is that she was fired, but under circumstances that most people view as unreasonable (and illegal in other countries).

        If the employer claims to have terminated her due to non performance reasons as she states, she doesn’t have an issue.
        Most employers wouldn’t share that they fired her anyway, ‘She moved on to other opportunities’ or another variation is normally what previous employers say. Most deal with that scenario professionally.

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