Laid-Off Workers Dress to Impress; ‘You’re Worth It,’ One Tells Friends

Long accustomed to business casual attire at work, a former executive at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide is now dressing to impress at networking meetings after being laid-off.

Friends invariably question his new formal look, Michael Guarini tells the the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). But he has a stock response: "You're worth it."

Looking professional and conservative is a smart move for those seeking new jobs, the newspaper recommends. And careful attention to tone and punctuation when telling contacts about a job loss can also pay dividends.

Even talking to friends, it's important to stay positive and professional when discussing a now-former employer. To do so, some find it helpful to delay any networking for a few days or weeks after being terminated, says Joelyn Cecere of the Drake Beam Morin Inc. career consulting firm.

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