“AND HE’S OH SO GOOD, AND HE’S OH SO FINE, AND HE’S OH SO HEALTHY IN HIS BODY AND HIS MIND…”

2/6/09

I also heard on WBBM Newsradio 78 (Chicago) this morning that a former corporate senior vice president (As in today’s Madoff post, her identity is not important because this post is not about her, but is more general in its observations.), having been laid off and unable to find comparable work, is considering working at Starbuck’s or Border’s, which, she hastens to add in a typical corporate CYA manner, are fine companies but not the type of work to which she was accustomed. Believe it or not, I do feel sorry for such people; the transition from uber-boss to barista must be tough and doubtless involves considerable costs to the families of those experiencing such a metamorphosis.

But a thought came to me…

Perhaps this woman, like so many people who achieved high paying and great sounding jobs in our formerly hyper-leveraged, ultra frothy economy, are more suited to work at Starbuck’s or Border’s than they were to positions of responsibility at major corporations. Plenty of mediocrities (In many cases the term “mediocrities” may be unduly generous, but I digress.) made it near the top following the usual corporate formula, i.e., thick knee pads for dealing with their superiorities, blunt cudgels for dealing with their underlings (speaking figuratively, of course), in the crazy economy that has just passed, and, come to think of it, have risen to positions of great authority under many more normal economic scenarios.

Too harsh, you might ask? C’mon. You’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. There are people with BIG jobs in many corporations about whom the most salient question is how they find their way to work in the morning. This is one of the reasons that our economy is in such trouble, but I digress.

Another thought came to me…

No one is saying that 7.6% unemployment is normal or that consecutive quarters of sharp economic contractions are normal. However, perhaps what we are seeing, through all this economic pain, is a return to a normal economy, from an economy in which people whose only skills are a lap dog attitude toward their bosses and a bulldog attitude toward the people they manage reach the heights of corporate power to an economy in which real talent, effort, and brains are the key to success.

If that is indeed the case, maybe something good, in addition to a renewed appreciation for saving money (See MANY prior posts.), will come out of this period of economic trial. But, again, I doubt it.