Last year, I was fired by email without notice. Oddly, my email access wasn’t revoked, so I kept acting like an employee—joining meetings, visiting the office, posting on LinkedIn. One day, the CEO messaged me about leading the Jakarta project, which I’d never heard of. Seizing the opportunity, I bluffed my way through, claiming I was assigned to it. I spent the weekend researching, organizing scattered files into a Notion dashboard, and assigning tasks. The team responded as if I was their manager.
Turns out, HR fired me by mistake and ghosted me instead of correcting it. So, I made myself indispensable, leading the Jakarta project with stand-ups and reports. Months later, I was invited to a leadership offsite in Goa, where the CEO praised my work and offered me a promotion to lead Asia ops. I confessed the truth about my firing. Instead of anger, he laughed, apologized, and ordered a new contract with retroactive pay and a bonus.
As the new regional director, I helped the new HR VP audit and fix dozens of mishandled terminations and complaints. My takeaway? If the system discards you, keep showing up. Prove they were wrong to let you go, and you might just turn a mistake into a triumph.
