My brother-in-law, a high school classmate, my sister-in-law, a good friend’s husband, a graduate school friend. My son’s Pre-K teacher moves to Illinois where her husband has now found a job and his classmate moves with her family to Nebraska where all have found employment. A majority of us, upside-down on our home mortgages simply because we bought our homes in the last decade.
Recessions of the past have been only skin deep. I graduated from Alma College in the 80s and Duke University in the 90s, both at the tail end of recessions (yes, great timing, I know). Finding a job was harder, it took longer, and wages were perhaps lower than they would have been, but if you stuck to it, you could at least find a job. You could find a job with some basic benefits in time to start paying those now-due student loans, rent a cheap apartment, and buy gas for your old, used car. You could survive and hang in there until the recession ended.
These light recessions found one or two friends of friends impacted somewhat by these short-lived downturns. And those that lost jobs soon found other jobs or were even hired back by their companies after only a few months. And some of these other positions they found were in better positions at higher wages.
This recession is different. It drags on, and I know of no one who has not had a family member or close personal friend laid-off. And these are good, productive workers, many of them brighter and more talented than me. Their personnel files are unblemished. They have families, reasonable mortgages, little if any other debt and good credit ratings, and they face the risk of uncovered health care expenses if something happens once the health care grace period runs out.
These hard-working, follow-the-rules people are vulnerable. And that makes those of us who know and care for them vulnerable too. We worry about them. We prepare to help however we can. And we worry, with each new day, that we too will find ourselves in the same position. We too can easily become economic victims.
The experts agree that the technical recession “is likely” over, but they also agree that there will be more pain to come before things get better for our workforce, our family, our friends. It gives us hope, but still we feel vulnerable and completely out of control.
We come together to work on resumes, and we search for jobs and pass along leads. We get together for dinner instead of nights out in an effort to save money. Even those of us with employment look for ways to save money out of respect for those who are saving out of necessity and we are quietly saving should it become a necessity for us. This recession seems to have made us pause to reflect. We’ve stepped off the noisy, fast-paced treadmills of everyday work and home life and have gotten to know each other again in deeper, more appreciative ways. If there is a silver-lining to this recession, perhaps this is it. We talk more about life, struggles, and the future. We live more modestly, more quietly. We’ve come to know each other better, because this recession, it’s personal.
The "Over 40" Life! 