It's not unusual, when someone gets a job transfer to a faraway place like Maine or Miami, to throw a bon-voyage party with a theme, featuring black balloons, black cake and finger foods, and the requested attire, of course, being black. But the latest trend in career-related socializing has taken an unorthodox turn: the unemployment shower.

Call it a pity party with a purpose. Mimicking the bridal or baby shower structure, the goal of the unemployment shower is to commemorate professional accomplishments, but also provide the support and tools to help the recently downsized face their life change.

While some layoffs occur with the employee being escorted out the back door shortly after learning the news, Diane Zielinski, unemployed herself, says the concept needn't be restricted to the company conference room. She told Newsweek she envisions colleagues planning events on their own, complete with catering, games and gifts.

Gifts? Resume paper and envelopes, a new tie, a business card holder, stamps, job resource books. Games? Pin the Tail on the Boss, Name that Career Charades, State Budget Monopoly, (collect your unemployment check as you pass "Go"), and Get to the Head of the Unemployment Line.

Music? Grateful Dead's "Cumberland Blues," The Beatles "Paperback Writer," Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," Rose Royce's "Workin' at the Carwash," Lee Dorsey's "Working in the Coal Mine," or "Take This Job and Shove It" by Johnny (appropriately enough) Paycheck.

"Make sure there's alcohol involved and some time for bitching," suggests Anne Yannello, a Sacramento resident on the job hunt since December.

Timely Encouragement

Supplies and resources aside, such an event can provide critical moral support, believes Stefanie Hopper, an outplacement specialist with DBM Corp in Sacramento. "It can get you away from being isolated, which can help when you're recently laid off," Hopper notes. "You can network, vent, boost your mental state."

Even though California's budget crisis and the downward slide of the nation's economy means the job-loss experience is becoming more common, even jobseekers who saw it coming may still need to give due thought to their new status.

"The 'economy' is something nebulous, a vague presence," Yannello explains. "You start to think, Am I just going to go get a job at McDonald's? We're all one step away from saying, 'you want fries with that?' That's what I think is making everyone freak out."

The unemployment shower can provide a healthy perspective and focus that need to recognize the transition. It permits people to grieve the past and all it meant - accomplishment, status, salary, relationships with colleagues - and acknowledge the loss.

"It's just an incredible idea," Yannello attests. At a time when "you're wondering how to make your next car payment and rent and utilities," a fun-filled event comes along to lighten the load.

Practical, Positive Themes

Shortly after Sharon Kahn Luttrell learned she was being laid off, her boss mentioned planning the ever-awkward, cake and punch, back-slapping, handshaking send-off fiesta. Writing about it for The Boston Globe, Luttrell says her idea of an unemployment shower was much more practical and positive: while lauding her accomplishments and contributions, some people also brought Rolodex cards with contacts, while others brought examples of strong resumes.

Were Helen Scully, principal consultant with Scully Career Associates in Sacramento, to attend such a themed event, she says her gift list would supplement her seasoned advice. "Absolutely the biggest mistake people make is they don't focus their job search before they start," she stresses. "An assessment tool I'd definitely give is Elevations, available at ElevateYourCareer.com."

Another category on her gift list is communication - phone cards, a pager contract, two hours free technical service to a computer geek "because your computer will invariably crash as soon as you start your job search."

As jobseekers often are out pounding the pavement and hard to reach, pagers and calling cards can boost availability and contact with those who do the hiring. "A lot of reasons people don't get jobs is because they're out and about, and for very good reasons, but they end up playing phone tag with employers," Scully points out. "So they lose the offer."

Other Excuses to Party

Not only are layoffs common, but so are career changes. As the economy reshapes itself and certain professions appear more likely to suffer downsizing than others, some professionals are seeking to recreate or refocus their occupation.

Yannello notes that services that facilitate such transformation would be welcome gifts. Hoping to build on her 14 years in journalism to land a public affairs position meant she had to adjust her resume. "I'm changing fields to make myself more marketable. You'd think, with a college degree, it'd be easy to write a resume. But if you've done the same type of resume for 14 years, it's very difficult," she confesses. "Someone saying, 'hey, let's take a look at your resume,' - those services would be tremendous."

An introduction to Betty Street, coordinator of the Sacramento Professional Network (916/227-0330), would also be a good gift. The network, a division of the Employment Development Department's Experience Unlimited program, functions as a job resource for white-collar workers, offering a slate of job-search classes, such as interview skills and resume writing, as well as tools like an Internet connection and phone books. The network currently boasts more than 150 members. At least twenty-six other club-type networks operate around the state.

Of course, even if you don't throw a party, you can still shower the jobless with helpful gifts, You don't even have to get creative. Scully believes that the standard gifts like movie tickets or certificates for a department store or ice cream shop all provide a mental and physical break from the pursuit of a paid position. Even a month's membership to a health club, or certificates for a massage all go a long way toward easing a jobseeker's stress.

Because being unemployed these days is hardly a cakewalk.

All the more reason to party.