Most people see no difference between being “laid off” and other forms of termination because it means the same thing in the pocketbook. From my youth, people are often laid off during the off-seasons for various industries, and then hired back when things were better again. With a few exceptions, that is no longer the case.

Also, in the past, jobs were based primarily on health, willingness to work and physical ability. That is no longer the case. Jobs today require skill sets that are quite complex and often changing. The exception to this is service jobs in the retail sector where pay and self-esteem are very low. As I pointed out in my article on Jobs and Work, we need a job in order to live (extended family support is no longer available in our disconnected society), but we need real work in order to feel fulfilled.

Education, and particularly higher education, have fooled the public into believing that obtaining educational credentials entitles one to a good paying job. That has never been the case, but is widely believed.

But your concern is about how employers treat their employees. Since the accountants took over running corporations in the 1990s, focusing on showing profits on balance sheets by outsourcing and replacing people with technology, thereby providing short-term profits and benefits to the shareholders and corporate executives, terminations have become exceedingly impersonal and devastating.

For people who do not have the latest skill sets or buzzwords on their resume, getting back into working in a weak economy is very difficult. We are partly to blame because we often operate in a deficit mode, borrowing against our future with credit cards and spending beyond our means, rather than saving and preparing for that rainy day when it does come. I believe that the real unemployment is closer to 30% and that most of these people will never get back in the job market.

Ron