For many who have always been successful, suddenly being told, “Don’t you come ‘round no more” is probably a very traumatic experience.

Yet instead of taking that bad news and using it to fuel a plan to start anew, many laid off workers are more focused on acting as if nothing ever happened.

For many who have always been successful, suddenly being told, “Don’t you come ‘round no more” is probably a very traumatic experience.

Yet instead of taking that bad news and using it to fuel a plan to start anew, many laid off workers are more focused on acting as if nothing ever happened.

Indeed, per the Washington Post, there are a number of individuals masking their true employment status for fear of being ostracized by their peers.

This has spawned former executives to make baffling decisions like continuing to pay their country club memberships despite their homes facing foreclosure. Or going so far in their act that they literally get up everyday, get dressed, and drive off somewhere – a park, a coffee shop, or wherever they can go without being spotted until it’s time to return home.

Lawyers, journalists, financial planners all spending money that they don’t have to impress people likely not that better off than them. Those with no money spending excessively for show ought to be more pressed about pleasing their creditors.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s not just the upper middle class taping into their inner thespian.

It’s my friends, former co-workers, and associates in their 20s. Some have only barely entered junior level status by the time they were terminated yet they're ashamed of losing their job.

When most have informed me that they’ve been let go they ask that I not share that news with anyone. That’s a respectful request, but some go further.

Can anyone else remember distinctly being asked to lie on a laid off person’s behalf? I have and it makes me uncomfortable.

Granted, being laid off is nothing to be boastful about, but with millions of jobs being lost since December 2007, shouldn’t the stigma sting a little less?

You don’t really have to lie about being laid off to still kick it…do you?

Leave your comments below and send your recession tales to therecessiondiaries@gmail.com.