Fired

If you spend any time at all in the workplace you’re going to get laid off, down-sized, let go, out-sourced, axed, terminated, canned, cancelled, dismissed… “FIRED.” When actress Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a play by Woody Allen she wondered how she would cope with being fired by a cultural icon. Turning to friends in show business she was assured she was not alone. Once the subject had been broached, everyone she knew from her rabbi and gynecologists to her colleagues had advice and their own accounts of getting the boot to offer. This set her off on a journey to answer the question: was being fired going to be the best thing or worst thing that had happened in her working life. Gurwitch began researching and traveling the country, interviewing people as diverse as Tim Allen, Sarah Silverman, Jeff Garlin, Anne Meara, David Cross and GM workers in Lansing, Michigan whose perspectives ranged from the tragically comedic to proving that old adage when one door closes another door opens, to the just plain tragic. Annabelle attended job fairs, received “outplacement services”, interviewed human resource directors, downsizers, and the downsized who were seeking new jobs. “Fired” reminds us that all great success come out of failure and being fired can be a part of the growth process, that humor helps, and that if you’re employed in America today your firing may be the best and the worst thing that can happen in your working life – “Fired.”