To Give or Live

Recessionitis

As employers large and small seek methods of plugging the ever-widening holes in the hulls of their sinking vessels, and tossing things overboard to lighten the load, something troubling is happening--it is being used as an excuse. It's not just that company benefits are being eliminated or trimmed, though that is happening at an alarming rate, it's that obligations are being overlooked. We mustn't let the recession give us recessionitis.

I spoke to a corporate executive last week who explained a particularly vexing employee, who had badgered the department and had found protection from being fired in their Human Services rules was bundled into a bigger layoff and let go. What would have taken six weeks to several months to accomplish was taken care of in a single stroke. This happens to be one of those understandable usages of layoffs, and I could hear the relief over the employee finally being gone, but it suggests a crack in the veneer of truth. It wasn't entirely above board.

Another owner of a small company said he'd taken the opportunity to clean house of some workers who were never going to cut it, that the recession provided perfect cover to speed along what otherwise would have been costly and dragged out dismissals. There is efficiency in such layoffs--firings--and efficiency is what's needed to keep small and large businesses afloat. But if such practices become easier for having done them once, then there's a danger of falling into the excuses trap.

More troubling to me, as a board member of a worthy non-profit, is that businesses and individuals have stopped giving. As of the start of the new year money simply dried up. This makes for desperate times for our inner city youth literacy and athletics program--it may go under. And I have to wonder what's going on. Yes, money is tight for all of us, but this is no time to allow safety nets for the needy to go under. To the contrary, there are and will be even more needy--kids and adults alike--in the coming months and if ever there was a time to reach deep and give to charity, those who can afford to must.

If the recession becomes an excuse instead of a challenge then there is a double barreled effect: it hits our purses and our humanity; it degrades our bank accounts and our ethics. Times of hardship can unite and lift a society to new accomplishments, or turn it on itself--every man for himself; dog eat dog.

We must go forward, yes. Difficult decisions must be made, no doubt. People will lose jobs. Non-profits will fail. But hopefully we can retain our common humanity in the process.