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When career counselor Kate Wendleton started receiving calls from embattled Andersen employees asking if they should begin looking for new jobs, she knew the psychology of recession had finally taken hold.

"This is a typical mentality during tough times," says Wendleton, author of Targeting the Job You Want (Career Press, 2000). Despite imminent downsizing, bankruptcy, and court orders, employees today are slow to leave even the worst jobs, she says. Paralyzed by fear or suffering denial, many professionals are instead hunkering down in their existing positions, opting for job security over satisfaction and hoping the unemployment rate halts at 6%.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that during the first quarter of 2002, only 14% of managers and executives said they would relocate for a new job. That's the lowest rate recorded since the company started keeping track 15 years ago and a sign that indicates "people seem less inclined to leave their personal and professional safety nets," says John A. Challenger.

But safety nets provide comfort for only so long; sooner or later, they wear thin.

The "help wanted" section in the newspaper may look skimpy, and headhunters may no longer bombard your voice mail with lucrative offers, but that's no reason to stay in a dead-end job. Regardless of the economy, people still retire, quit, go back to school, or change careers, leaving real positions open for the right candidates. The trick is luring those candidates out from under their desks.

By the way, here's what Wendleton told anxious Andersen employees who called seeking career advice earlier this year: "Umm, yeah ... you might want to start looking for a new job."

Can You Afford Not To?

Job security -- that regular paycheck and 401(k) contribution -- is perhaps the biggest mental roadblock for an unsatisfied employee wrestling with the urge to resign. But job security is hardly scientific or reliable, says Arlene Hirsch, a Chicago career counselor and author of Love Your Work and Success Will Follow (John Wiley & Sons, 1996). Your position -- just because it hasn't yet been cut -- can feel secure even when it's in jeopardy.

"Many people rationalize to themselves that, because the economy is bad, they may not find anything else, so they stay in a job where they're unhappy," she says. "But in the end, they may become so unhappy that they sabotage themselves by not doing a good job, or even by assuming their job is safe when it really isn't. The question becomes, Can you afford not to take a risk?"

That doesn't mean the work world should rise up in revolt tomorrow. Before delivering their letters of resignation or complaining to superiors, unhappy employees should update and circulate their résumés to new companies, Hirsch says.

"Revising your résumé and looking for a new job might help you highlight what's bothering you about the position you're in," she says. Until you expose the problem with your current gig, you can't begin to apply solutions.

"For example, if you're tired of doing the same old thing, look for ways to reshape your job and learn new skills -- whatever will help make your job stimulating again," she says.