After Michael Guarini lost his job as president of the health division of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide last year, he started dressing up more. The advertising and public relations firm had a business-casual dress code, but now for networking meetings, Mr. Guarini says he generally wears business suits, even with people with whom he is long acquainted.

This often requires humorous deflecting. 'People invariably say, 'I hope you didn't wear a suit for me,'' says Mr. Guarini. He has two pat replies: 'You're worth it,' or, 'I had some other meetings today.'

In the aftermath of a layoff, style is critical. And it's about more than the decision to polish a wardrobe. The way people comport themselves after losing a job can make all the difference in what comes next. From how they convey the news to colleagues, to the type of clothes they wear and how they punctuate their emails, the newly jobless must use careful footwork to navigate the job hunt.

When in doubt, it's a safe bet to retreat to conservative styles. After Michael Bragg was downsized from his New York-based job at a high-end European fashion brand, he went out and bought a new pair of shoes -- lace-up, American-made Aldens. Play it straight with email, too. Sure, sometimes it's perfectly acceptable to shoot off a short, all lowercase missive to a colleague. But punctuation is a risk-free option. The same goes for social-networking. Now is not the time to post pics from a beer-sodden barbecue and share them with everyone in your network.

Many executives must learn to rein in their presumptuous, free-wheeling style. Amy Friedman, chief executive of Partners in Human Resources International, got an emergency call to help a recently fired senior marketing executive at a big media company. The laid-off executive had broadly bad-mouthed her former employer in what she saw as casual conversations. Three weeks later, with damaging gossip swirling, it was Ms. Friedman's job to form a recovery plan.

'We scripted it out,' Ms. Friedman says. They made a list of each person the executive had phoned, including what she told them, to the best of her memory. Then they rehearsed an apology, along the lines of: 'I was very reactive that day, but I'm on good terms with my former organization and I'd really like to enlist your support.'

There's no reason to agonize over telling people you're job hunting. One out of 10 workers is unemployed these days, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And most economic forecasts suggest that the employment situation will worsen before it improves. Jonscott Turco, a vice president with Partners in Human Resources, says most people have become so accustomed to layoffs that they assume it was a downsizing even if the person was fired for cause. It's best to choose words that are direct and clear without providing much detail: I'm no longer with my company and I'm looking for opportunities. 'People get into a jam when they start to give details,' Mr. Turco says.

Most people say they know to avoid the sort of bridge-burning tantrum thrown by the ad exec who was fired on the season premier of 'Mad Men' this week. Yet just type in 'I lost my job today' on YouTube. The site is chock-full of videos of stunned, suddenly jobless people putting their worst foot forward.

Digging at his ear and mumbling, Don Bell called his former company an obscene name in a video he posted the day he lost his job. 'I was really distraught,' says Mr. Bell, a truck driver in Gahanna, Ohio. He says his former employer hasn't seen the video.

After I spent time watching his and other just-fired videos one evening, my young son asked, 'Mom, why are you watching crazy people?' Of course, we'd all like to think we'd handle the bad news more sanely. But even people in the employment business can be caught off guard, proving just how important it can be to consider your 'fired style.'

An executive recruiter for hedge funds says that after he was fired earlier this year, 'The rest of the day I was on the phone with people telling them what happened and basically getting it off my chest.' The recruiter, who asked that his name not be used, says he didn't think of this as a networking move because the people were friends.

Many career counselors recommend taking several days or even weeks off after losing a job -- time to prepare mentally as well as to organize for a search. Joelyn Cecere, who heads the financial services practice at career consulting firm Drake, Beam, Morin Inc., likens this with recovering from a marital split.

'Sometimes when you go through a divorce, you think you're ready to date,' Ms. Cecere says. 'But often . . . it's obvious to everybody but the person that that person does not need to be out there dating.'

在去年邁克爾?加里尼(Michael Guarini)丟掉奧美(Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide)醫(yī)療子公司總裁的工作后，他開(kāi)始穿得更加正式。加里尼先生表示，廣告和公關(guān)公司奧美的著裝要求是商務(wù)休閑裝，但是如今，在參加社交活動(dòng)時(shí)，他一般都會(huì)穿上職業(yè)正裝，即便是與他很熟的人會(huì)面時(shí)也是如此。

這常常需要略帶幽默感的委婉解釋。加里尼先生表示，大家總是說(shuō)，‘我希望你不是為我才穿得這么正式。’他恰好有兩個(gè)回答來(lái)應(yīng)付此類(lèi)問(wèn)題：“你值得我這么做”，或是，“我今天還要參加其它的會(huì)議”。

在失業(yè)之后，個(gè)人風(fēng)格變得至關(guān)重要。而這并不只是完善衣柜的決定那么簡(jiǎn)單。人們失業(yè)之后的舉止談吐可能會(huì)決定未來(lái)的求職進(jìn)展。從他們?nèi)绾螌⑾⒏嬷拢┦裁搭?lèi)型的衣服，到寫(xiě)電子郵件時(shí)如何斷句，新進(jìn)失業(yè)人員必須借助仔細(xì)謹(jǐn)慎的策略來(lái)駕馭求職的過(guò)程。

當(dāng)你心有疑惑的時(shí)候，最安全的方法就是回歸傳統(tǒng)風(fēng)格。邁克爾?布拉格(Michael Bragg)在一家高端歐洲時(shí)尚品牌駐紐約的職位被裁減后，他出去買(mǎi)了一雙新鞋──系帶的美國(guó)制Aldens。同時(shí)也在電子郵件中直言不諱。誠(chéng)然，有時(shí)候給某個(gè)同事發(fā)去一封全是小寫(xiě)字母的簡(jiǎn)短信件完全可以接受。但是，標(biāo)點(diǎn)符號(hào)是沒(méi)有風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的選擇。對(duì)于社交活動(dòng)也是如此。現(xiàn)在可不是將你在燒烤野餐上喝醉的模樣上傳到網(wǎng)上，與自己網(wǎng)絡(luò)里的所有人分享的時(shí)候。

許多管理人士必須學(xué)會(huì)控制自己專橫、隨心所欲的風(fēng)格。Partners in Human Resources International的首席執(zhí)行長(zhǎng)艾米?弗里德曼(Amy Friedman)日前接到一個(gè)緊急電話，要她幫助某家大型媒體公司最近剛被解雇的高級(jí)市場(chǎng)主管。這位失業(yè)的管理人士在她所認(rèn)為的非正式對(duì)話中對(duì)前雇主大放厥詞。三周后，隨著流言不斷蔓延，其破壞性影響也開(kāi)始顯現(xiàn)，弗里德曼女士不得不為她制定一個(gè)名聲修復(fù)計(jì)劃。

弗里德曼女士表示，“我們?yōu)榇藢?xiě)了個(gè)‘劇本’。”他們列出了這位管理人士所致電過(guò)的所有人的名單，包括她根據(jù)自己的記憶當(dāng)時(shí)是如何和他們對(duì)話的。然后，他們排練了道歉提綱，大意是：“我那天非常情緒化，但是我和前雇主的關(guān)系良好，我真的希望獲得你們的支持。”

沒(méi)有理由為告訴他人你正在找工作而感到苦惱。根據(jù)美國(guó)勞工部(Bureau of Labor)的統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字，如今十分之一的美國(guó)人處于失業(yè)狀態(tài)。而大多數(shù)經(jīng)濟(jì)預(yù)測(cè)均顯示，就業(yè)狀況將會(huì)繼續(xù)惡化一段時(shí)間才能有所改善。Partners in Human Resources的副總裁約翰斯科特?塔克(Jonscott Turco)表示，大多數(shù)人對(duì)失業(yè)已經(jīng)見(jiàn)多不怪，以至于即便某人是因?yàn)檫^(guò)失被解雇的，他們也會(huì)認(rèn)為是出于企業(yè)減員調(diào)整的緣故。最好是選擇直接、清晰而無(wú)需提供過(guò)多細(xì)節(jié)的措辭：我已經(jīng)離開(kāi)以前的公司，目前正在尋找機(jī)會(huì)。塔克先生表示，一旦開(kāi)始提供失業(yè)的具體細(xì)節(jié)，人們往往會(huì)陷入困境。

大多數(shù)人表示他們知道應(yīng)該避免《廣告狂人》(Mad Men)第三季里那位被解雇的廣告管理人士的暴怒情緒。然而，你在YouTube上輸入“我今天失業(yè)了” ('I lost my job today')看看。上面充斥著那些突然失業(yè)、備受打擊的人們最糟糕的一面。

失業(yè)那天，唐?貝爾(Don Bell)上傳了一個(gè)視頻，他裝作說(shuō)悄悄話的樣子，用一個(gè)猥褻的名字稱呼他的前雇主。這位俄亥俄州Gahanna的卡車(chē)司機(jī)表示，“我當(dāng)時(shí)真要發(fā)瘋了。”他說(shuō)他的前雇主沒(méi)有看到這個(gè)視頻。

某天傍晚，在我觀看了他和其他新進(jìn)失業(yè)人士的視頻之后，我年幼的兒子問(wèn)道，“媽媽，為什么你在看那些瘋狂的家伙？”當(dāng)然，我們都愿意認(rèn)為我們會(huì)更加理性地對(duì)待壞消息。但是，即便那些身在就業(yè)服務(wù)行業(yè)的人們也會(huì)措手不及，這也證明了思考自己的“失業(yè)風(fēng)格”可能會(huì)有多么重要。

一位負(fù)責(zé)對(duì)沖基金行業(yè)的獵頭顧問(wèn)表示，今年早些時(shí)候他被解雇了。當(dāng)天余下的時(shí)間，他都在和別人通電話，講述自己的遭遇，其實(shí)就是想把解雇這件事一吐而快。這位不愿透露姓名的獵頭顧問(wèn)表示，他并不認(rèn)為這樣做是社交的一部分，因?yàn)樗娫挼哪切┤硕际桥笥选?/p>

許多職業(yè)顧問(wèn)建議，一旦失業(yè)，不妨休息幾天，甚至幾周，花點(diǎn)時(shí)間在精神上做好準(zhǔn)備，然后有條不紊地開(kāi)始找工作。職業(yè)咨詢公司Drake, Beam, Morin Inc.負(fù)責(zé)金融服務(wù)行業(yè)的負(fù)責(zé)人喬琳?西西亞(Joelyn Cecere)表示，這其實(shí)和從婚姻破裂的打擊中恢復(fù)過(guò)來(lái)沒(méi)有什么兩樣。

西西亞女士說(shuō)，有時(shí)候在你經(jīng)歷離婚之后，你認(rèn)為自己已經(jīng)可以再次約會(huì)了。但是，常常是除了你自己之外的所有人都明白，你這時(shí)候根本不需要約會(huì)。