You may have lost your job recently, but that’s no excuse to lose your manners, too. Of course, with so many friends and family members struggling with unemployment and financial woes, you may not be sure exactly what proper etiquette even entails anymore.
After all, who’s supposed to pick up the check at dinner now that all of your i-banker friends aren’t feeling so flush? And when is the right time to start networking at a party? Today’s recession is quickly changing all the rules, and bringing up questions that no Miss Manners book in the library is ready to answer.
Luckily, a bevy of “etiquette experts” have been doling out recession-friendly advice over the past few weeks and putting together some general guidelines…
When she was laid off from the job she loved at a media company last fall, one marketing executive went for drinks with her friends to drown her sorrows and find a little solace. She and three-quarters of her department had been fired — and on top of that, she had just signed a lease renewal, including a rent increase, on her Manhattan apartment.
“Don’t you have six months of rent saved?” asked one seemingly well-intentioned friend. The marketing executive nearly fell off her bar stool.
In the hours after a friend or family member is laid off, the last thing they need is…