The growing legion

The anxiety that comes with knowing that layoffs are coming, and that layoffs are coming soon, but you don't know if you'll be one of those who will be laid off, is hard to describe. `Unsettling' doesn't quite encompass the breadth of emotions. `Concerned' isn't quite descriptive enough. `Uneasy' moves closer to a more accurate portrayal, but even that isn't quite there.

You get the picture. It's messed up. It's been almost a week since I was told that layoffs are coming and that layoffs are coming sooner, rather than later. How many? I wasn't told that. When? I wasn't told that, either. The factors that go into who will go and who will stay? Nope.

The result are myriad unanswered questions. Do you spend a few hundred bucks replacing a dingy old couch that could put a healthy man in traction, or do you sock it away for next month's mortgage? Do you resolve never to go out to dinner again until the future is clearer, or do you splurge in an effort at releasing some tension? Do you take that planned vacation, or do you keep it in the bank, knowing that the paid time off will come in handy when the steady paychecks stop.

It is an usettled, disconcerting, uneasy time not only where I work, but at workplaces across the country. Layoffs are on everyone's mind. It has become so paramount, I sometimes forget the pay reductions and increased health insurance premiums.

The people I know have trooped on marvelously. Today's paper detailing the historic inauguration of a black man inheriting a White House built by slaves was a masterpiece. Beat reporters are commited as ever. Every day, jewels are published by people living under such stress that recent editions now, more than ever, embody the meaning of the so-called `daily miracle.' People who don't know if their careers will suddenly end tomorrow are busting their ass, refusing to go quietly into that dying of the light.

Meanwhile, the speculation continues. Reporters at other publications are wondering how bad the bloodletting will be, trying to confirm rumors that WARN letters - required in California when more a good chunk of a company's workforce will be axed - are being prepared.

Who knows? But it's a bit disquieting knowing that my next blog entry could be written by the newest member of the country's growing legion of the unemployed.