Katrien Rennemeier is a sustainability professional based in Belgium who values the collaborative spirit of responsibility and trust. Visit her profile here.

I was once fired from a corporate job.  The type of firing we see in the movies -

You turn up at work one morning totally oblivious, you are marched to another building by poker-faced superiors before getting a court-style statement read to you.

Your laptop gets swiftly taken, and the security escorts you to your desk where you have five minutes to pack your personal belongings and get out.

Just like that within an hour, the organization you have given your blood, sweat and tears to, and people you’ve been sharing a few square meters with for years, act like they’ve never met you and make you their number one enemy.

I agree it was time for me to leave – my boss and I had grown to resent each other, and it had become unbearable for us both to work together.

However, the issue to this day is that I still don’t know exactly why I got fired. My official documents read “irreconcilable differences in values” – which was true, but legally speaking those are not grounds on which to fire someone.

During the actual hour in which I sat there in tears listening to the words being read to me stipulating that my contract was being terminated,  I asked what I was accused of exactly. My question was simply dismissed with “we don’t need to go there, we all know why”.

But I actually did not know why. A statement had been issued against me by my boss, with several pages of his story lying on the table while we were sat in that miserable meeting room, but I was not allowed to read them.

Although retrospectively I am relieved I got fired, the fact that I was never given a “fair trial” where I could counterargue and defend myself against whatever I was being accused of never left me.

In that moment of an utter power imbalance, where you are totally vulnerable and treated as an inferior outsider,  you don’t notice the infringement of your rights and invalidation of your dignity being imposed upon you.

Till this day, it remains scarred in my memory, but with a resolve to never let this happen to anyone.

My advice

What I learnt from this experience is to be prepared for similar situations. In the same way we get insurance for our houses, join a union and inform yourself of your rights and the legal processes employers must follow if they choose to fire you.

Never allow invalidation, intimidation, or confusion by so called ‘superiors’ to stop you from demanding what is rightfully yours.