Recession Concessions for 2009

Here--a brief rundown on some of the things workers will be giving up this year:

The city/company car: In New York, city agencies will be forced to hand over the keys to nearly 700 city-owned cars--saving the administration some $20 million over two years, the New York Times reports.

The private driver: In Hollywood, studios are cutting travel budgets and executives are being asked to skip the five-star hotels and the private car service, the Los Angeles Times reports. Gone, too, are the gilded movie premieres.

Tenure: A growing number of job openings for college professors are for part-time or temporary work without lifetime tenure.

Cash: In one example, many Google employees reportedly didn't get their traditional cash bonuses this year--they got Google smartphones instead.

Coworkers: Forget layoffs, many companies are instituting hiring freezes until the economy picks up. That means the empty desks will stay empty and you'll need more than one inbox to pick up the slack. (Good luck getting the company to pay for another inbox...)

Five-day workweeks: Another popular cost-cutting measure is the four-day work week, which helps companies and governments slash their energy bills.

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