Your Duty to Mitigate After Being Fired in Ontario: What Job Search Efforts Are Expected

Being dismissed without cause in Ontario generally entitles you to notice, or pay in lieu of notice. What many people don't realize is that collecting the full value of that entitlement usually comes with a responsibility of your own: making reasonable efforts to find comparable new work. This is called the duty to mitigate, and ignoring it can genuinely shrink what you eventually recover.

Here's what the duty to mitigate actually requires after being fired in Ontario — and, just as importantly, what it does not require.

What "Duty to Mitigate" Means

The underlying idea is that notice damages exist to bridge the gap between your old job and reasonably comparable new employment — not to provide a windfall regardless of what you do next. So Ontario law generally expects a dismissed employee to make reasonable efforts to reduce their own losses by searching for new, comparable work, rather than simply waiting out the notice period.

What Counts as Reasonable Effort

There is no single required checklist, and what counts as "reasonable" depends on your industry, seniority, and local job market — but efforts that generally support a mitigation record include:

• [ ] Updating your resume and professional profiles promptly after the dismissal
• [ ] Applying to roles that are genuinely comparable in seniority, compensation, and field
• [ ] Keeping records of applications, responses, interviews, and networking efforts
• [ ] Using recruiters, job boards, and industry contacts, not just one narrow channel
• [ ] Responding promptly to interview requests and following up appropriately
• [ ] Considering reasonable further education or retraining if it genuinely improves your prospects in your field

What the Duty Does NOT Require

• You are not required to take any job, at any wage, immediately. The expectation is comparable employment, not the first available position regardless of fit or pay.
• You are not required to relocate, in most circumstances, unless relocation was already a realistic expectation of your prior role.
• You are not required to accept re-employment with the same employer on unreasonable or humiliating terms, particularly after a difficult termination.
• You are not required to guarantee results — the duty is about making reasonable efforts, not about actually landing a new job by a certain date.

How Failing to Mitigate Affects Your Claim

If a court finds that a dismissed employee failed to make reasonable efforts to find comparable work, it can reduce the damages awarded to reflect the income the employee likely could have earned had they mitigated properly. The employer generally bears the burden of showing that the employee failed to mitigate and that comparable work was reasonably available — it isn't simply assumed against the employee. There is no fixed formula for how much a shortfall in mitigation efforts reduces an award; it depends entirely on the facts.

Practical Steps to Protect Your Position

1. Start your job search promptly after the dismissal, rather than waiting.
2. Keep a written log of every application, contact, and response — dates matter.
3. Save job postings you applied to, so you can later show the roles were genuinely comparable.
4. Don't turn down clearly comparable opportunities without a good reason, and document your reasoning if you do.
5. Tell your lawyer about any income you do earn during the notice period — it generally needs to be accounted for either way.

Frequently asked questions