Vocational Interview - Termination Vocational

Vocational Interview - Termination VOCATIONAL INTERVIEW: INVOLUNTARY TERMINATION Introduction to Vocational Interview: The interview subject was terminated from a position at a large advertising firm where she had worked as a communications project manager for approximately a year. She is 29 years old and has an undergraduate degree in communications with a minor in business administration. In her most recent position, her primary responsibilities consisted of drafting and editing advertising copy and promotional materials within the corporate communications and advertising department of a private sector company.

Employee's Perspective and Reaction: The interviewee understood but nevertheless resented many elements of the situation that culminated in her termination. Likewise, she understands why her supervisors recommended her termination, but refused to implement their requested changes in her performance because working in an environment that required long-term changes of that nature would have made her "miserable at work." The interviewee also described difficulty respecting the authority of her direct supervisor. The interviewee was not surprised by her termination and actually expected it sooner.

She did not suffer from a loss of self-esteem or general psychological well-being for that reason, as well as because she had made the conscious choice not to make all the changes in her performance that her immediate supervisor had requested before (and during) the formal probationary period that preceded her termination.

Similarly, the interviewee did not consider her termination to reflect her professional competence in the skills of her industry that caused her any concerns in connection with securing another position in a professional atmosphere more conducive to her long-term satisfaction. The interviewee describes a contentious relationship with members of the graphic arts and design department with whom her duties required regular collaboration.

Specifically, according to her, the graphic design director was an "obnoxious," "self- centered," and "overbearing" "jerk" with whom she found it extremely difficult to negotiate in the manner that the rest of her department made the effort to do.

Her description includes various situations where, if it is accurate, she was instructed to make the necessary changes in her contribution to interactions with the individual involved to accommodate his known personality "quirks." The rest of her department made that effort for the purposes of maintaining a smooth working environment with the graphic arts department but the interviewee related that she could not be comfortable working in an environment where her entire department considered the graphic arts director to be "obnoxious" but maintained a perpetual "false smile" with respect to him.

The interviewee participated in voluntary human resource counseling, but further relates that the counselor merely suggested specific techniques for patronizing the graphic arts director and strongly recommended against addressing any grievances, even politely, and even where those grievances were directly associated with work matters and procedures necessary for their smooth collaboration. The interviewee also admits to lacking sufficient intellectual and psychological respect for her immediate supervisor.

Specifically, the interviewee describes the fact that her supervisor believed in astrology, even referring to its relevance to social compatibilities at work, as a major factor inhibiting her from developing more respect for her supervisor. Similarly, her supervisor also expressed skepticism about the validity of the Theory of Evolution in social conversation, which, in retrospect, the interviewee regrets ever having. Those sentiments made it especially hard for the interviewee to conform to other elements of her supervisor's requests.

Specifically, as project manager, the interviewee was responsible for coordinating the contributions of all other members of the production team. In that capacity, the date of project completion for most projects depended on circumstances out of her control, because even with her following up with each team member appropriately, they still caused delays that were unavoidable on her end.

Generally, most of these projects were not required to be completed by any specific date, as the interviewee was the original source of any anticipated completion dates, based on projected time frames of completion of individual responsibilities of other team members. In virtually all cases, wherever a component task necessary for the project delayed its completion, the project managers simply adjusted the anticipated completion date for the entire project.

The interviewee's immediate supervisor had requested continual formal updates to the production schedule, which made no sense to the interviewee since no project of hers had ever been delayed beyond any actual deadline or in any way by virtue of her failure to perform any of her specific responsibilities. The interviewee accommodated the supervisor's request but admitted in conversation that she failed to see the point.

The interviewee understands that doing so was not a good idea under normal circumstances, but relates that by that time, she no longer cared about long-term employment by the firm in that capacity. In retrospect, the interviewee does not regret letting the situation at work develop the way it did, leading to her termination. She describes herself as having a "very limited ability to tolerate people she does not respect.

In that regard, the one mistake she acknowledges is engaging in unnecessary social conversation with her supervisor, because it disclosed certain information that undermined her ability to respect her authority. On the other hand, the astrology issue came up in professional discussions rather than.