Recession’s Impact on Work and Friends

All of us know coworkers and friends who’ve lost jobs. This recession has been remarkably egalitarian. An interesting piece in Slate Magazine takes a different sort of look at the recession’s impact on work and friendships.

Workplaces are where people associate across economic lines. Work fixes different classes of people into the same place every day. When the recession terminates work for some or places others in a near-broke condition, friendships are altered.

Where do you take someone to dinner? What if a friend or coworker has lost her house to foreclosure and doesn’t feel comfortable asking you over (as in the past) in the smaller, not-as-well-located apartment? Do you invite her over, perhaps making her feel even worse?

What do you do when a friend or coworker’s spouse loses his job, diminishing savings; causing the cancellation of the Internet at home or a scale back of cable channels; making the annual trip to see a ballgame, a play, a concert problematic? Do you talk about your upcoming vacation when some of those around you can’t take one? Is it best not to talk about your life and just wait for others to talk about theirs?

As the Slate article says: “Maybe this kind of unease is not a bad thing for people who live in comfort. Watching someone you care about fall apart, one unpaid bill at a time, should breed empathy. It should take you out of your new sandals and into the frayed flip-flops of someone else.” It should and sometimes does.

But it’s not always that simple. Bitterness can seep into a relationship. Good intentions can be misplaced. It’s easy to feel damned if you do and damned if you don’t. In such difficult times, a good friend or coworker is sensitive, supportive, and silent when necessary. That can be a tough job.