Michael Luo has a fine story in Saturday’s New York Times about downward mobility in the recession: people who have gone from being well-paid managers to being janitors or data-entry clerks or call-center workers.
Saddest line in the story: “Even though she has parted ways with some friends because she is no longer in their social stratum … ” I’ll have to get a new dictionary. The one I have seems to have an obsolete definition of the word “friend.”
One question I would have liked to ask, had I been reporting the story: “If you had your old job back, or a job like it, is there anything you’ve learned from this experience that would change the way you manage the people working for you?”