At work we’re experiencing the same stresses as are other companies: higher borrowing costs, softening demand for our products, and more uncertainty in planning. Shall we go ahead with purchases and hirings that make sense in normal or even slow times? If we’re in the midst of a long and deep recession, all bets are off.
Raises and bonuses will be minuscule this year, despite everyone working harder than ever. (Since I’ve been in the workforce it seems that every twelve to fifteen years the managers make the rounds saying, “Your bonus is you get to keep your job.”)
No, today’s travails aren’t as bad as the gas lines that we saw during the Seventies, or the 15% mortgage rates during the Eighties, but there’s enough pain and fear to instill conservative life lessons in this latest generation of risk-takers.
Baby-boomers bite their tongues when our sons and daughters proclaim current miseries to be the “worst” ever....this in a period when obesity, not starvation, is America’s principal health problem, and multiple Libraries of Congress are instantly accessible via cellphone. Boomers know that listening to such breathless exclamations is our penance for ignoring and even sneering at our own parents’ tales of real hardship. Today’s problems are nothing. We’re just at the bottom of a cycle, these times will pass, and there’s much to be thankful for. © 2008 Stephen Yuen
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