Pink-Slip Blues

Letting Go

Once the guillotine has fallen, laid-off employees often feel angry, hurt, and betrayed. Luban says that's natural. Bitch, moan, complain, and cry to your heart's content.

"Don't avoid those feelings or begin pushing even harder toward a new job," she says. "Grief will sabotage your interviews if you don't work through it first. If you're feeling at half-mast, you will approach each interview as another potential rejection, and recruiters will tear you apart."

Misery loves company. And recovery seldom begins in isolation. So Luban suggests seeking a career counselor or joining a support group -- and, no, pink-slip parties don't count. Take a few weeks to work through your feelings before jumping back on the career boards, but don't allow your healing time to become an unsightly résumé gap.

"Whether you're traveling through India or bumming around San Francisco, the grief will remain if you don't meet it head-on," Luban says. "It's too risky to take a long sabbatical right now, so you must find support close to home and look inside yourself for solutions."

The Wilderness

Once you're ready to start writing cover letters and practicing handshakes again, you must learn to compartmentalize the job search, so that it doesn't dominate every waking hour. Begin by assembling an interim structure for your day that includes rituals for exercise, healthy eating, adequate sleep, and reflection. Luban recommends starting a journal -- a place to vent about the agony and ecstasy of the process every day.

"When we're working, our jobs define the structure of our day," Luban says. "When that structure has been lost, people feel lost and helpless. They panic because they don't know how to deal with uncertainty. If you create an interim schedule, you can release yourself into the uncertainty of unemployment, because there is some structure to your day."

Set aside four or five hours each day for researching, applying, and interviewing for jobs, and use the remaining time to "wander," Luban says. Rather than living panic-filled days at Kinko's, schedule time to stroll through a park, visit a museum, or swim laps at the gym.

"When people aren't looking, that's exactly when the connections and awakenings happen," Luban says. "There's a lot going on internally, and wandering allows for internal breakthroughs -- if you stop clutching and driving long enough to remember who you are."

Seeing the Beacon

The self-evaluation and job-search processes started in "The Wilderness" begin to pay off when you feel a sense of calling and can identify the job, industry, or position that will make you happiest. "You finally get a clear sense of what you are and what's next," Luban says about the fourth step identified in Are You a Corporate Refugee?: "Seeing the Beacon."

"Watch out for false starts," Luban warns. "Some people become so fearful of the unknown that they settle for the first thing that comes along. You simply can't let dwindling resources or outside pressure force you into another job that's bound to end badly."

In the New Land

This final stage of the "Refugee Experience" represents a new beginning that Luban celebrates cautiously. "Don't just give yourself over to your new job," she warns. "Build resilience. Hold your boundaries. Own yourself."

In short, never allow yourself to become a corporate victim again. That doesn't mean you shouldn't allow yourself to be fired or downsized again. It means you shouldn't allow yourself to place faith in continuity again. "Disruption and unpredictability are the constants in careers from this day forward," Luban writes on her Web site, Corporate Refugees.com.

"If we allow companies to oppress us, they will," she says. "But if we maintain our boundaries and push the oppressors back, we will remain strong. You can't be a victim without an oppressor."

Anni Layne (alayne@fastcompany.com) is the senior Web editor for fastcompany.com. Learn more about Ruth Luban on the Web.

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