These days, the media is doing its storytelling job by detailing the lives of the recently laid-off and the challenge of finding a job--and the getting by in the meantime.
Seven portraits in New York magazine show the variety of obstacles that accompany a layoff.
- An IT director says it's harder for his wife to parent their kids with him home all the time.
- Bad habits kick in: A 24-year-old former recruiter spent his severance at a bar and finds it hard to get out of his boxers.
- The freetime poses a challenge for workaholics.
- Pride inhibits the job hunt. Says a former newspaper editor: "I’m trying to get myself into the right people’s in-boxes, but I don’t want to be a wretch who reeks of desperation."
- Spouses can take the news hard.
Sometimes the media tells its own story. Another piece in today's New York Times tells of an NPR reporter who was working on a project about Americans getting by in the downturn. She was laid off before she finished, so she used her own story to finish the series.
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a reader of NY 10:18PM December 30, 2008