Dating, working, plenty of times in life you will be wronged. It’s unfortunate but it’s true as most of life is learning from the times that hurt and knock you down. It’s important to recognize the traits and behaviors that can lead you to hurt but also know that self-evaluating is a mature trait everyone could use more of.

My last job in radio was down in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the first time I moved away from home since I went to college in my home town. That job was a ton of work keeping me busy Monday through Friday and more often then not pulling a pretty full day on most Saturdays. Well before my tenure came to an end I really didn’t enjoy that job and was not having fun, which is definitely a key in radio.

I spent 11 months working radio in southern New Mexico and about eight months in we had a management change as the CEO of the whole company came down to run things. Right off the bat this guy didn’t like me. He had a very prickly demeanor towards me immediately and said plenty of things behind closed doors that found their way back to me. Regardless, I tried to keep doing good work and I won Best On Air Personality in a Big City from the New Mexico Broadcaster’s Association, a big deal worth congratulations right? The CEO didn’t give me a single one.

Ultimately, I was fired from that job and the CEO made no bones about it that he thought I had an attitude problem and that he thought it was an easy decision. I worked hard and won that award, how could it be an easy decision? I ended up getting unemployment but had to fight for my case against the CEO personally on the phone in an arbitration process, which I ultimately won, but it was late in the process and clearly personal.

To this date I still don’t think there was grounds to fire me, especially after explaining my situation to other radio professionals, and I would never work for that CEO or company again after what I went thought. However, there are two options after that happened; you can carry that anger with you and be upset or you can use it as an opportunity to learn. I definitely made mistakes that put myself in the position to be let go and that’s what you have to ask yourself. What can I do better?

You don’t have to say deny that you were wronged but you can always try and figure out what you can improve on. It was a silver lining ultimately to no longer be part of that company, but I reflected on the things I could do better and used them to get better and try and excel more in my job now. Doing the morning show with McCall is by far the best job I’ve ever had, and the company and personnel are a big part of that but I also made changes to put myself in a better position to really enjoy what I do.

Recently for VFX we had to let someone go and in the exit interview it was quite clear this person thought they didn’t deserve this decision and thought it it could have been personal. This left a sour taste in my mouth because I found it to be quite an immature response after being warned about certain things that were out of line. How do you get warned for certain things, continue to do them and then think you didn’t deserve to be let go?

We as a staff acknowledged there are things we could improve upon and that’s why we had the exit interview, but too often I think too many people just blame everyone else and don’t look inward. Everyone has gone through a bad break up and had a relationship they needed to get out of because of things the other was doing. Never would I say it’s your fault, but you can always look inward and ask ‘What did I do to get here? What can I do better to try and avoid this in the future? What can I learn from this?’

To often I think emotion can get the best of us and we blame those around us for things happening. Crap things are going to happen that we have no control over, but we have control over ourselves. This is not me saying that everything that happens is our faults, but the question ‘What can I do?’ needs to be asked more. Always be self-evaluating and always try to be better.