(FORTUNE Magazine) – Think before you e-mail

Peter Chung, a young buy-side analyst in the Carlyle Group's Seoul office, sent friends an e-mail in which he described his glamorous life--his "harem of chickies," the bankers catering to his "every whim," etc. The e-mail ricocheted around the financial community (excerpts of it ran in the New York Times). Chung was promptly fired.

Make the most of your experience

In February a self-described "former marijuana smuggler" placed a classified ad in the Toronto-based National Post, seeking employment after a ten-year jail sentence. He touted his expertise in "all levels of security."

Pass the blame (and the buffalo wings)

From a survey in Sales and Marketing Management magazine: 49% of respondents said their job had harmed their marriage, 69% declared work pressures had caused them to get fat, and a third blamed a sales career for their tendency to smoke and drink too much.

Reemphasize training

An ax-wielding man entered and robbed an Oklahoma City Wal-Mart, whose door greeter, rather than alert authorities, had merely placed a sticker on the ax so that the man wouldn't be charged for it when he left. (According to Wal-Mart, the robber claimed he was returning it. "And it was a hatchet, not an ax," says a spokesperson.)

Get creative with cost cutting

Lucent lost even more of its luminance as some cubicles in its Murray Hill, N.J., headquarters were lit by just one fluorescent bulb rather than the usual four. (How many executives did it take to come up with that idea?) During the summer the British Broadcasting Corp. considered a controversial ban on free biscuits at internal meetings, a move that would save over $400,000 per year. Employees found it hard to argue with the fact that, yes, that was a lot of dough. Then there's the Swedish Navy, which announced in May that because of spending cutbacks, it would scale back its operations from around-the-clock to nine to five, Monday through Friday. Anyone wanting to invade will just have to wait.

Never overestimate loyalty

Martha Stewart's love of entertaining doesn't extend to her staff. Eschewing a big holiday bash at Martha Stewart Living OmniMedia, she instead asked employees to host parties at home for ten randomly chosen staffers. (Then again, volunteers have been reportedly slow in coming.)

Never underestimate loyalty, either

Richard Young was fired from Ohio Casualty Insurance after he took on sheriff's deputies for six hours while wielding a gun. Young sued to get his job back, claiming he had a mental illness, which the company must accommodate. Just because he wanted to kill himself, his argument went, didn't mean he didn't want to continue to be a member of the Ohio Casualty team (he was a regional manager of litigation). The case is ongoing.

Be flexible

Left idle during layoffs and a hiring freeze, the 30-strong corporate recruiting team at Corning transformed into the very opposite of itself--an outplacement unit. "I think this is unique," says Corning rep Monica Ott.

Career counseling is always an option

Eduardo Veliz, a 36-year-old Peruvian who last year chopped off his penis to draw attention to his jobless plight, sliced off one of his testicles in front of the nation's Parliament building in August to protest his low pay.

Cushion the blow

Guinness announced in July that free beer would be part of severance packages for 150 laid-off employees in Dundalk, Ireland. Meanwhile, in San Pedro, Calif., Stephen Pazian, former president of eConnect, can afford to buy his own (and, come to think of it, a round for the Guinnessites). He was paid $1 million to settle a breach-of-contract suit he had brought against eConnect, despite the fact that he had been terminated after only 27 days.

Choose your battles

It was a victory for labor that perhaps rivals the adoption of the eight-hour workday: In June, Walt Disney World finally allowed costumed workers to clean their company-issued undergarments instead of relying on its launderers. (Some nitpicky workers had complained of stains, lice, and scabies.) Samuel Gompers would have been proud.

Let employees find themselves

About 10% of June graduates from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management sat in limbo, having been asked by their new employers to wait as long as nine months (sans salary) to begin working. MBA: Might Bartend Anywhere. In October a Munich-based wireless division of Siemens allowed workers to apply for a "time out" of up to a year, at reduced pay, without losing their job permanently. And in San Francisco laid-off techies Andrew Brenner and Michael Feldman founded Recession Camp, taking other jobless folk on weekday hikes, bike rides, and excursions to baseball games. Dear kids: Having wonderful time, wish you were here....

Networking with higher-ups is key

Tired of recruiters playing God, job seekers in Perth Amboy, N.J., took their frustrations to the ultimate authority. The Cathedral Second Baptist Church held a Pink Slip Prayer Service on Labor Day weekend and plans another one at the end of this month "in light of these interesting economic times," says Bishop Donald Hilliard Jr. "Just because the bottom falls out doesn't mean you have to fall out with the bottom," he adds. "There is always hope."

Good jobs do exist

Researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center offered to pay volunteers $11 an hour to go to bed for a month with their heads tilted down to simulate a long space flight. The project starts next month, and a rep at NASA says it has received more than a thousand responses. Do the guys at Recession Camp know about this?

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