“As the economy blasts away at white-collar workers as well as blue-collar ones, the newly jobless are learning an ungainly new language: How to spin their situation to other parents on the Saturday morning sidelines. How to convey nonchalance during Pinteresque pauses in the golf-club locker rooms. How to fend off inquisitive family members at Memorial Day barbecues.”
That’s from a New York Times article yesterday about “the new language of loss” when it comes to the awkwardness of talking about your joblessness.
After I got laid off two years ago, I avoided a former colleague on public transit because I knew he was going to ask me if I’d found a job. I went to the gym during times I knew I wouldn’t run into acquaintances.
With U.S. companies shedding nearly a quarter of a million jobs in the first quarter, many people are enduring similar uneasy encounters. The NYT article has some helpful hints for coping.
Here are a few more worthwhile articles:
- Five ways to make unemployment work for you
- Bullet-proof yourself against a layoff
- Managing unemployment stress
