This is really embarrassing but I found your famous Marie Claire article when I googled “I’ve been fired: now what?”
I was fired yesterday for something I believed I was going to get away with. I worked for an orthopaedic office for 6 years, was fully vested. My duties included front office clerical, medical billing, coding, etc. Any doctor’s office is home to me, as I’ve worked in this profession for 18 years. The medical aspect of the work keeps me going. Anyway, on with it, embarrassingly enough, a co-worker and I tried calling in prescriptions for each other. She already had that responsibility in her job description, just not without the doc’s consent.
Photo courtesy: Bonita Sarita/Flickr/Creative Commons
My question is this: My administrator is still in contact with me, finalizing benefits and the like. She told me she would give me a good reference. But I just read about 5 articles about how you shouldn’t lie if you were fired,that a prospective employer will find out. I guess I need to discuss this with my administrator but if she said she’d give a good reference, do you think she’ll tell them I was fired? The co-worker involved was a very close friend of mine and now we are not talking.
There really isn’t anyone, other than my husband who’s at work, whom I can talk to and get feedback from. And I really need the kind that is blatantly honest. I have a feeling you can help me with that! Please feel free to let me have it or just say whatever your opinion is. I really don’t have any honest feedback in my life right now, other than my husbands.
I really am glad I found your blog!
Well, I’m not sure you’re going to be so glad you found my blog after you read what I’m about to say. I certainly understand better than most people what it’s like to lose a job that’s important to you and how devastating that can be, especially if you haven’t done anything to deserve it.
But the fact of the matter is, you did deserve it. And while I’m not just trying to to let you “have it,” honestly you are lucky they just fired you and didn’t have you arrested. The last time I checked, prescription fraud is a federal offense.
With that being said, my next concern is what type of prescriptions you and your co-worker were writing for each other, and what were you doing with them? Were you selling them? Or were you using them to feed an addiction? If so, do not pass go, go directly to rehab!
OK, Amy Winehouse joking aside. What is your husband saying about this? Because my gut instinct is that you have a more serious problem than whether you should lie about why you were fired— which by the way is a bad idea for many reasons.
First, you will probably get caught just like you did– which led to you getting fired in the first place. Second, if someone checks your references they aren’t just going to ask your supervisor. When I was a newsroom manager, I would call people who knew and worked with the person. Of course, whoever you put as your reference is supposed to say good things about you. A good manager wants to know how you really are and if you could be potentially problematic.
Speaking of problematic, even though I didn’t do anything to deserve losing my job twice since 2006 I was grilled repeatedly during several job interviews. As if someone couldn’t believe I’d done nothing wrong. And that made me defensive in many of the interviews, so I can’t imagine having something to hide. An intuitive interviewer will pick up on body language, stories that just don’t jive, etc.
So, I really think you have a lot more to consider than just whether you should lie about being fired– including what else are you lying about in your life.
Stylishly yours,
Miss Attitude
Tags: addiction, amy winehouse, fired, layoff, lying, marie claire, miss attitude, prescription fraud, prescriptions, rehab
She’s very lucky she didn’t get into more trouble than just getting fired.
I love that song!
First, of all way to go Miss Attitude, that was great advice!!! And I think you did not miss a thing. Second, not that it really matters in the case, but I think this varies from state to state. But I own my own business and if someone calls for a reference on an employed that has been fired I do not believe that I can tell them that. It is a shady line on what I can say and not. but in the case it seems she has alot more to worry about. KUDOS Miss Attiude, this is way a loves ya!!!