This recession is depressing. I’m not talking about the daily news – it’s good, it’s bad, it’s not so bad, it’ worse, it’s great – that has us constantly wondering when it will be over (2010?). And I’m not talking about how we can’t spend anything because we’re worried about losing a job and not being able to pay necessary expenses (because I always try to be a light spender, recession or no).
The trouble is work. I actually first noticed this problem in a friend of mine. She is looking for a new job (and it’s a long process go figure). One day I was talking to her after she had just had an interview, and she was telling me that every time she had an interview, she had a good day at the job she was currently at, and that she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to leave. See, people at her job were making it difficult, but when it was busy and she didn’t have to think about the office politics, she loved her job.
When it was busy.
That is why the recession is depressing. Let’s face it, we are people who like to work! And if you have a job, it should not be about the money, it should be because you like it! I cannot imagine working in any sort of retail or customer service function where business was slow. Even if I had my job, I’d go crazy!
And that leads me to the other depressing part of the recession – fear of layoff. I said earlier that saving for a layoff didn’t make the recession bad. But fear of layoff is different. For months on end we would go into work saying, “What’s going to happen? Are we having layoffs? How many? Are there going to be salary cuts? Raises at all this year? If I’m not staffed all summer, is that a sign of impending doom?”
This kind of talk makes work depressing. You work as hard as you can because you don’t want to be the one laid off. And then, right when the pink slips are coming out, you are burnt out, and your performance sinks. Then you wonder if all the hard work you do will even be rewarded with a raise this year…even a small one.
Which is the last thing that makes the recession depressing. For professionals and salary folks, the recession means more work. Companies layoff key salaried employees to cut costs and then expect the rest to make up the work. As accountants, we work long hours during busy season, and this year we are experiencing a longer busy season (if you’re not charging 50 hours a week, it’s not worth it to the company to employ you). But I have found that people in other professions who are salaried are experiencing the same problem.
More and more I hear the term, "At least I have a job!" Now, while this sounds like a way to say positive, it it is really a negative remark. It essentially means, "I am miserable at my job. I used to like it, but I don't anymore. All I do is work all the time, but I can't get a new job because there are no jobs to be had." And what's worse is that corporations take advantage of this feeling. We are supposed to love our jobs! Not just work to bring in a paycheck! If we are going to spend 1/4 - 1/3 of our lives working, then we need to love what we do, not feel like trapped slaves.
There is good news, though! The recession is over! My friend Kristen officially ended it in January. She wrote me an email about how depressed it was making her and decided that it was over. She ended it – because literally the day after she wrote the email, the stock market went up for three months in a row. Housing prices leveled out, and people started buying homes again.
I guess the point is, this recession is what you make of it. It’s a good time for learning and growth, for those of us who are bad with money. For those of us who are always prepared, it’s a time to discover what’s really important in life. It’s a time to learn just what it is about your job that’s got you down before hopping over to a new one. But most of all, it’s a time when it is very important to keep a positive attitude and not let the recession turn into a depression!
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