There are several documented examples in Mumbai of people who continue to commute on suburban trains after retirement; they don’t want to give up the company of their fellow travellers. The 10.30am Bandra-Churchgate local, for instance, has a regular group that travels together every working day, playing cards, cracking jokes and generally enjoying each other’s company. Some folks have continued to commute though they have no office to go to, and actually return home on the same train.

Today, there are other people with no office to go to who are making the same journey. There are no heart-warming bonds and friendships to write about here. Their reason for the purposeless travel is that they have lost their jobs, but do not want their families or neighbours to know about it.

If truth be told, you won’t find too many of these people travelling in trains. The average commuter needs a job; he can’t make two ends meet otherwise. It is the people in chauffeur-driven cars who are more prone to such subterfuge.

When a fat cat in the finance sector gets the pink slip, does he downsize his lifestyle? In the West, under normal circumstances, he would actually start spending more and cutting a wider swathe. In a society where the sizzle matters more than the steak, potential employers assume that he is sitting on a better proposition. They rush in with their own offer. Mr Fat Cat is back on the gravy train.

Today, of course, nobody’s buying the bluff. Job losses in the US finance sector are already widespread. The Wall Street Journal has predicted another 25 per cent cut in the employment numbers in 2009. These, mind you, are not jobs that require physical activity — a genteel chauffeur can probably get a job as a truck driver at a lower salary. A finance type these days will not even be trusted with an empty truck. Bernie Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme has struck the last nail in the coffin.

But India has not witnessed widespread job cuts. Today, the detritus of foreign banks and brokerage houses are still keeping up the image. “You have to exude confidence,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh.

HR professionals and career consultants, however, suggest that you cannot stay in denial for too long. You shouldn’t do things in a hurry or show your desperation, but you should conserve your nest egg for harder days ahead. And keep your CV handy.

But Singh asks a simple question: “Do CEOs carry CVs?” His contention is that once you cross a certain level, you cannot seek a job; you have to be asked. There is always the pretence that you are doing very well, thank you, but you are not averse to looking for something better. In the finance world, everyone has the ego of a CEO.

That’s where the difference in views arises. If you are a common or garden variety worker, you admit your predicament and get down to the task of finding another job. There are no pretences here. If, however, you feel you are the cat’s whiskers and people should be making a queue to your doorstep to employ you, you need to lie your way through adversity. It’s not too difficult for the high-finance types. That’s what much of Wall Street seems to have been routinely doing.

But it can be poignant. Says an article in The New York Times, “The neighbour, a jovial suit-and-tie presence at the school bus stop in the mornings, disappeared for a while last fall. Nobody saw him for weeks. Finally he began to venture out in jeans and a T-shirt. A senior manager of a technology department, he had been laid off. Neighbours didn’t know what to say to him… As classes let out at a city private school, a normally chatty top-of-the-heap woman, whose banker husband was recently escorted out of his office building, rushes in, sweeps up her child and dashes off, avoiding glances.”

These are the new untouchables and they themselves are the first to think so.

THE BIG BOUNCE BACK

Strategies for coping with job loss

The first three days after you have lost your job, concentrate only on understanding and accepting what has happened.

Resist the temptation to call business associates or contact search firms. First decide what you want to do.

Deal with your emotions. Otherwise, they’ll trip you up later in the job search process.

Don’t imagine you can hide your feelings. Job loss is among the top 10 stressful life events.

Refusing to deal with feelings of self-pity, anger or failure may make a potential employer conclude that you are not flexible or adaptable.

The longer you wait, the harder it gets, so act now. Talk to someone.

Get back in the game. Begin by asking yourself three questions. What can I do? What will I do? What do I want to do?