Coping With Job Loss the Old-Fashioned Way: Denial
For many people, the silver lining of getting laid off would be the freedom from getting up early, putting on a suit, and sitting on a crowded subway for half an hour at 8am every morning. Some strange individuals, however, continue with this whole routine even when they don't have an office to go to. Even stranger, this sort of a charade is not necessarily carried out to hide the shame of unemployment from a spouse or children, but as a kind of morale-maintaining exercise.
"I have a new client," shares a career counselor, "a laid-off lawyer, who's commuting in every day—to his Starbucks. He gets dressed up, meets with colleagues, networks; he calls it his Western White House. I have encouraged him to keep his routine."
Sounds tragic, but psychologists believe that this kind of fakery reflects personal pride and helps people cope with the challenges of changing circumstances. Which is fine, we guess, just so long as the rest of us watch out for the line between pretending Starbucks is your office and pretending you're running a profitable investment fund.
