On the other hand, these are some persistent layoffs.

Are the workers made unnecessary by either lowered product demand or increases in productivity? The former means a big % of our economy could depend on a boom/bubble structure. The latter means that these people will need some serious retraining/adjustment before they're back in the workforce.

Two, Americans don't move around as much as they used to. We used to move about once every 5 years. Now, when a recession hits, we don't move to where the jobs are as much. That slows the recovery down.

Three, there are major pieces of legislation that have not been resolved. That does not help the business community decide whether it's OK to hire. The quicker the legislation is handled (one way or another), the faster the restructuring of the economy and the faster people will be put back to work.

Four, "productivity" in the midst of a recession is just a fancy name for fewer workers doing more work because their co-workers were let go. This new-found "productivity" wont last long, and will go back to the mean as soon as rehiring starts.

Five, there will /always/ be a demand for people to fix other people's screw-ups (if you're in the IT industry). The last two jobs I was on they were looking for somebody who can migrate their ancient systems to something more modern. People are figuring out that's it's really easy to build things, but quite a different matter when it comes time to migrate.

Six, we are working our way through a large bubble. This recession says more about the bubble than the skills of the labor force. But, yes, major labor adjustments will be made.

Seven, businesses are scared and banks wont lend to small business. It's not that labor is unnecessary, but that next to nobody wants to take the risk in a down economy, or those who do can't get the capital. Some well-managed companies haven't laid off anybody and are thriving (e.g. Apple). Google has started re-staffing, so they see things picking up. It will take time, but it's getting better. The well-managed companies see the shift and are first movers.

Eight, this economic restructuring is normal. It's scary if you've never lived through one before, but it's by no means unique. It's actually more than normal, it's occasionally necessary to force a restructuring and wring out the excesses.

Nine, things are better than they appear on the surface. We have started the recovery but it's hard to tell because the lagging indicators are still down. Just because pessimism is in vogue doesn't mean things are getting worse.

Lastly, we have finally slipped our shackles. No more WinTel. Instead, we get to figure out the best way to handle multi-core. RDBMs are no longer de rigueur; we get to apply NoSQL where it makes sense. Hardware is so cheap that instead of doing backups we just use clustering or multiple-allocation. RAM is so cheap that we can put the whole internet in it. Disk is morphing to solid-state right before our eyes. The opportunities are far greater than they have ever been. And those of us who have been keeping up will lead the way.

Second worst: linking c programs when some of the symbols are duplicated in more than one library yet are defined differently, Nobody mentioning this to the developer made it all the more exciting.

Appendix B.

1. morally, I wonder what Buffy would do.

2. for showing that it's possible to succeed without selling out, Whedon.

3. for challenging me to stick to my beliefs, J.D. Salinger.

4. for a glimpse of honor, compassion, and beauty, Harper Lee.

5. Anne Frank.

One German-born girl, three American writers, and one fictional character. On the surface they don't look like super-heroes, but all have affected the way I think and view the world.

What's sobering is that none of my heroes are on anybody else's list.

First, thanks for posting the question. I've read a lot of good info in this thread and I'd like to reciprocate.

The most important lesson I've learned in my life is that the people who have any influence over you are most likely playing you. And most "dirty tricks" are not done directly, but through their proxies. If this is news to you, you wont even be able to tell whose pulling the levers.

People may be moral on Sunday, but, come Monday, the boss can pretty much define what's right and wrong and people will fall in line, even if it's to conspire and betray. Most people have the morality of a squirrel: they will steal your nuts, but only when you aren't looking.

Their justifications for screwing you:

1. as long as they don't get caught, they think it's OK;

2. they assume they are being played, too, so it's just the way they think the world works;

3. the ends justify the means;

4. some people (salesmen / head hunters / egotistic managers) play it for the game: playing people like a puppet on a string, what's not to like, especially if it puts jingle in the pocket?

5. better him than me; it's a dog eat dog world;

6. who can afford morals when you have a mortgage payment due? Family first;

7. the naive deserve to be played if they're this easy;

8. bacon cheeseburgers, chocolate, and over-generous salaries go a long way towards assuaging the guilt;

9. some think saying a prayer every Sunday absolves them;

10. periodically spreading graft in the form of gifts, bonuses, perks, plush job positions, etc., is an embodiment of their good intentions and shows what swell guys they really are. In reality, they are trying to buy you.

Here's a few clues that should draw your attention:

1. if it seems like your manager is doing no better than flipping a coin whenever he makes a technical decision, it's not because he's a moron when it comes to technical matters, it's because he is factoring his decision into his scheme of playing the maximum number of his employees to his benefit.

2. if the boss makes totally random statements that technically don't make any sense at all, it's because they weren't intended to make technical sense. He's sending you a message in manager-speak, the only code he understands. (More on this below.)

3. if buds that used to pal around with you start avoiding you, the boss has gotten to them in some way.

And here's one anti-pattern: don't think that being outwardly religious means that one is less evil than the non-religious. It just means the evil is cloaked in religious vestments.

Here's an example of how to decode a totalling random thing your boss may say. "Put the prototype in production now." Those six words have a totally different meaning to a manager than to a person naive enough to take this statement literally. Translation: "What I want you to do is this: rewrite the prototype and turn it into production code, test it, and install it before the end of the day, or, if you prefer, you can work all night and install it first thing tomorrow morning while I'm pounding away on my trophy wife. I know what I said may have sounded kind of funny, because I don't understand the stupid details that you techies masturbate over, but if I had said anything truly insane I'm sure that you idiot techies would have either corrected me, or made the proper translations from manager-speak to geek-speak. I mean, surely you're smart enough to do that, aren't you? You say you can speak all these different languages. Well, why don't you start with English? I own all of your asses, so you will either find a way to do this or else tell me in the most obsequious manner how my grand plan may be amended in a manner such that I will save face and still get what I want in the quickest way. And, oh, by the way, if this causes the database to start hemorrhaging data, it's all your fault because I hereby give you total responsibility and zero authority to actually get the task done. Deal with it, and get out of my face already. I have no clue how to actually do anything that I asked you to do, but that's not my problem, now, is it, you fooken mooches? Now I've got to get back to my office and covertly read the email you've been sending each other. Suck it! Uh, I mean, good luck on getting this done by my totally meaningless deadline!" There, that wasn't so hard to decode, was it? The reason why it becomes easier and easier to decode manager-speak is because a lot of the words and phrases remain the same, especially the phrases "idiots," "suck it," and "don't bother me with details, you ass-wipes! I can't even remember the passwords to half my accounts. How the hell do you think I can help you with your petty problems? Now, for Christsakes, leave me alone!"

Most people are amateurs at being pure evil, however, and have tells. They avoid looking you in the eyes, or give short, evasive or noncommittal answers. They often don't face you while talking to you, and their voice is lower than it is normally. They may look at their computer monitor as if it's revealing the answer to the universe and they are too busy soaking in life's answers to attend to your silly, silly questions that deal with boring things like databases or how we might make their company some coin.

The Pros, on the other hand, have learned the tricks to hiding their culpability: they have learned to control their emotions so that they can appear charming and look you straight in the eyes while lying. Finding the Pro's tells is much harder.

The most common way for a player to judge whether his conspiracies have been found out is to occasionally "ping" you and judge your reactions. The simplest form this takes is a cheery "Good Morning," except this is not a pleasantry, your boss is using it like radar. The naive wont be able to control the bile that starts to well up in the throat when they see somebody who is playing them, and they will immediately give it away on their face, and this is of course instantly readable. The ping succeeded. If you understand how the game is played, however, you will immediately give a reciprocating cheerful "Good morning," not because you give a rat's ass about your boss' well-being, but because showing your hand makes it even easier for your boss to play you. The corollary is to never let on that you know the rules of the game, which is why you almost never see these missives in print, and they will be quickly disavowed or shrugged off as casually as Bush shrugs off the fact he belongs to a secret society (Skull and Bones -- look it up). Who said poker's just a game?

Some indicators of Pro players: they pay a lot of attention to their appearance (one exception: they think they can cover up their rolls and rolls of fleshy fat with really expensive leather coats); they attach a huge amount of importance on being able to tightly control their emotions (or use them to personal gain, to wit, watch Hillary turn on the waterworks when her words are no longer effective); they tightly control information: they only release information that either makes them look good, is benign, or is vitally important to getting the job done; they know how to put the best light on a sucky situation, and, conversely, are quick to throw mud at others, even when they are three levels down the ladder and have absolutely zero authority, they still try to divert the responsibility onto those who are either unable to defend themselves or are unwilling to stoop to this nonsense. Most of the time, however, you wont even know it's happening. Most of it doesn't surface, but some eventually bubbles up from the depths. The most insidious members of our society are cowards, and prefer maneuvering in the shadows.

So amoral and base are these people that they will even try to play you after you give your notice. While you desperately try to break free from the beady-eyed little monsters, they will ask for that last pound of flesh without even blinking. From the most evil there is absolutely no remorse; and from those trying to buy back a piece of their souls, a generous severance. Take it -- you deserve it more than you will ever know.

Those weird things people have said to you in the past that you just write off as unimportant or meaningless, well, they weren't. The motivations behind those weird statements were most likely guileful, trying to get you to expose your cards, or manipulate you.

How to know you're being played? Aside from the clues I list above, you need to totally clear your head and let your subconscious pick it apart at night. I literally woke up one morning and knew what had happened because my dreams had played it out for me. Then once you know what happened, and understand these unspoken rules I've laid out, it's not too difficult to confirm. And to be specific about clearing your head, I mean eating like a cave man, and exercising like a cave man. Don't even ingest caffeine if you are trying to get to that point where your subconscious is able to tell you important things and you are capable of listening.

However, I just may be over-sensitive. And I suck at poker. But I'm learning.