Making Pink Slip Lemonade: First, add water

It’s sunny, dry, and brutally hot.  The perfect day for Pink Slip Lemonade, you might argue, if you were imagining yourself poolside at an all-inclusive resort in Palm Springs, or in your own backyard in the dog days of August, surrounded by friends and family.  But what if instead you found yourself, as Man vs. [...]

My career change story: From layoff lemons to Pink Slip Lemonade – Part I

It’s been nearly a decade, but the image remains vivid. Blue carpet-covered cube farm walls in a 100-year-old converted textile mill building. Logo wear, commemorative paperweights, and other artifacts of more carefree times scattered about. The sound of no work being done as we all hovered around the water cooler with bated breath…  Being on the receiving [...]

Job shaky? Prep for an “involuntary career change”

With the economy still unstable and layoffs, head count reduction, downsizing, rightsizing, whatever they’re calling it these days… a continuing threat at many companies, do yourself a favor and polish up your financial plan now, before you are the unwitting target of an “involuntary career change.” These tips, first published in late 2007, are more [...]