Nothing to Fear

And you know the famous end of this sentence from FDR: there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

As a career coach speaking with a variety of talented but recently unemployed people around the country, I hear fear on the other end of the phone. I don't blame any of them. "What can I do to prepare for a new job if there isn't anyone willing to hire until this whole financial debacle is resolved"

Until is what the optimists say.

I think we're in for a major transformation in how we view money, credit and where money even comes from. We are globally dependent and we're watching world markets quiver and change every day. We're interdependent in far more ways than we could have dreamed of even a month ago. It's all too obvious; as goes the American economy, so goes at least Western Europe, if not much of Asia. (I haven't heard a word about China in all this, other than we will be borrowing from them to pay for the inevitable bailout).

What will the transformation look like? It will be something closer to the 1930s than most Republicans would like, but that's too bad. We need to shore up our infrastructure, improve education and other systems for the general public good. We can also pump money and jobs into the economy with large government funded programs. Putting people to work to improve the inner workings of this country boosts confidence and develops skill. Improving education promises a future. The free market will not die with this solution. It's time to bolster the confidence of the US citizens and from there to show the world once again our resiliency.

Locating yourself in a US financial disaster

I call this locating yourself, but I can only write about myself and hope you resonate. This week has been an education in financial terminology I've heard for years but am finally hearing explained. Frankly there's a part of me that lives back in the 1950s. People go to work, get a paycheck, put it in the bank and maybe set up a savings account. They may have a single credit card and use it sparingly, paying it off in full every month, and consult a sound family budget weekly.

Never mind that I don't live this way, but I do think this way. And there's the problem. I actually learned my lesson the hard way with credit cards and for the most part charge everything to a debit card, which is just cash in plastic.

But I currently have only one secure savings "instrument" and it amounts to less than a month's overhead. In short, I live by the sweat of my brow; I depend on my work to pay the monthly bills and I'm not earning enough to meet the monthly numbers. This means that for the first time ever I am doing such a drastic spending plan and debt consolidation that my lifestyle of the past thirty plus years is about to change beyond my wildest (and probably most fear-filled) dreams.

Honestly I do not know right now what life would look or feel like living exactly within my means. From here it looks like poverty living. It feels reductionist and small, without vision or hope, in a place of defeat, devoid of opportunity, within a cocoon of depression and lackluster energy.

Hmmmm. Is there another way of looking at this? Is there any tiny ray of light in such a dark picture that something creative and expansive and life enhancing could emerge? I don't know yet; I'll keep posting on this as I do not wish to resolve that which is in flux and cannot be tightly and neatly concluded before its time. I will say this: there is some measure of comfort in the big downslide. I am not the only edge person out there. There may be comfort in numbers and we may work this out together way better than alone.

Just A Job

We work not just for money, but for a large variety of psychic rewards. Nowhere is this more evident than with people who retire and make themselves busier than they ever were as "employed" members of society.

The ripple effect of work comes in the experience of community expressed in the terra firma of belonging. When we belong to a working community, we are part of a group, part of something larger than our small and vulnerable selves. We are, for better or worse, connected to a system of people organized to achieve a common goal. It is in this psychic circle that we find ourselves loyal to the others with whom and for whom we work.

In the world of work of thirty to forty years ago and way back through the evolving workforce of the 20th Century, people were hired into jobs for which they could expect to remain for some fairly large measure of time. Today, Manpower Inc is the largest non government employer in the US. This is primarily a temporary agency. A large number of people today work in contract positions, brought in to solve a problem, address a specific need, but with no added benefits other than their hourly wage or contractual financial limit.

And enter the thought: it's just a job.

Although it's wise to take a deep breath and fully accept that the caring, nurturing employer has long since left the stage, it helps to see what we've lost in this and how we cope with that innate lack of belonging to a group. In my case, I have just expanded to three "jobs" each of which has deep personal rewards emanating from use of my talents to contribute to the greater good and get paid in doing so.

But what's missing is a deep sense of loyalty to any of these entities. Not one of these "jobs" provides benefits. Not one of these jobs promises to be around a year from now (yes, for themselves, but not necessarily for me). Contracts are temporary and renewable, depending on the flow of business, none of which is in my control.

How do I, or for you dear reader, create that sense of belonging and not just show up, deliver, walk away as if it was someone else's responsibility to own the system and give back to it more than the minimum? In the old paradigm there was a pressure to devote a certain degree of thought and even emotion to the organization, or at least to its people. In the new paradigm, it's way easier to get to the divisive "every man for himself". No matter how nice the people you work for are, there is still no structural framework to act as your safety net.

I have no answer for this, just questions. It's just a job may be a way to keep from getting duped and dumped or it may be a way of driving a wedge into our own well-being at work. I hear those words as defensive.