I held the door for a neighbor. She breezed through without a word of thanks.
No eye contact. No acknowledgment. No gratitude. Just an attitude of entitlement, a princess on parade.
As the economy crumbles and millions lose their jobs, this scenario happens again and again. The enterprise stumbles, and loyal employees are shown the door without a hint of gratitude.
Some are marched off the premises by security guards, lest they sabotage, say, the computer network. It is humiliating, and it brands the fired employee as unstable, a problem to be managed, certainly not a person deserving respect.
Some receive impersonal notices telling them not to report for duty on Monday; they're no longer needed. It's time for "lean and mean," and sloths must go. Or so goes the implied message.
Higher-ups get golden parachutes and severance packages and don't face the same economic peril as paycheck-to-paycheck wage earners. Even so, they experience the same cold conversations and lawyer-designed exit interviews.
On their way out the door, they sense the same averted eyes, shunned handshakes and thinly disguised relief that the one's going enables the other's staying.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20090214/LIVING09/902140380/1111/LIVING09
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