Work, American Style

Grace, Ali and Kate are a hard-working team and good friends as well. But in 6 months only one of them will have a job. The others will feel like personal failures, though they clearly are not ... But this is what a collapsing economy feels like .... personal failure We're so accustomed to relating the loss of a job to our failure to do it well or work hard enough. But that's all changed now. Today, you can work your ass off and still have zero job security, and the longer you've been working your ass off, the less security you will have.

And that's what the lucky person who gets to keep their job will learn. She will be worked like a dog, until such time that her health begins to suffer, then just about the time she'll need that health insurance, she'll lose her job and be replaced by someone younger, cheaper and healthier. Maybe they'll keep her around long enough to train them.

"It's not personal," her employers will tell her. "It's simply about money. Because, you know, we do care about you, but only to the extent that it affects our bottom line ... It's not that we wouldn't LIKE to care more deeply. We simply cannot afford to anymore. No one really can."

That, unfortunately, seems to be true. It's the story everywhere these days, and not just in workplaces. But it feels so very, very wrong.

Dropped the trio of hardworking cubicle ladies at Vincenzo's Pizza in the 1500 block of Cordova, in Fort Lauderdale, just near Southport, 'cause I never got around to eating much today, and then late-evening hunger set in.