I got fired

If you're not attuned to what high-level corporate feedback sounds like, you can go a surprisingly long time believing it to be praise.

(Not me in this case. I've long wished for a way to put, like, a five-year delay on my posts so I can safely talk about work stuff. Check back in 2027 for the scoop on that one, I guess. As preemptive penance for vaguebooking, here's a story from my own career that fits):

I got fired from my first real job in this industry. It was legit, and the right choice for the company: major mismatch between me and the CEO, both he and I were frankly too young and inexperienced to resolve it appropriately, and honestly I had kind of lost faith in the mission and was not putting in the energy needed by a startup at that phase of its lifecycle. (Hindsight, amirite?) It was the early days of Internet 1.0, so like all internet companies ours was run by a bunch of children and one graybeard, as was the fashion at the time. Our particular grownup was Dick Sabot who, among his many more significant accomplishments, was able to inform me that I should under no circumstances walk into that building ever again, in such a way that had me nodding happily along in agreement. It wasn't until literally hours later that the penny dropped and I realized I was newly unemployed. Skills.

(Here I am now, almost three decades later, in a managerial position myself. I'm semi-fluent in corporate comms -- I can hear and understand it, but never came within a mile of Dick's level of fluency in delivering it; instead I've opted for a much more blunt "I have no poker face whatsoever, you will know at all times exactly what I think of your ideas." Which suits! Because I do, in fact, have no poker face whatsoever. FWIW my reports seem to appreciate that directness; those managing me tend to either value it highly or be supremely irritated by it, not much in between.