Archive for February 6, 2009

Ben & Jerry’s Gives Obama a Flavor, and Ponders Bush’s

We’re a little late to this party, but apparently Ben & Jerry’s renamed their butter pecan flavor to “Yes, Pecan!” in honor of President Obama: although Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream remains my runaway favorite (come on, chocolate cone pieces!), I approve.

As part of our national “healing,” you might approve, too, of this list of potential names for a George W. Bush-themed Ben & Jerry’s flavor! While I dearly wish I could take credit for this delicious snark, alas, I merely encountered it on a friend’s Facebook page. Enjoy:

• Grape Depression
• The Housing Crunch
• Abu Grape
• Cluster Fudge
• Nut’n Accomplished
• Good Riddance You Lousy Motherfu***r… Swirl
• Iraqi Road
• Chock ‘n Awe
• WireTapioca
• Impeach Cobbler
• Guantanmallow
• imPeachmint
• Heck of a Job, Brownie!
• Neocon Politan
• RockyRoad to Fascism
• The Reese’s-cession
• Cookie D’oh!
• Nougalar Proliferation
• Death by Chocolate… and Torture
• Freedom Vanilla Ice Cream
• Chocolate Chip On My Shoulder
• Credit Crunch
• Mission Pecanplished
• Country Pumpkin
• Chunky Monkey in Chief
• WMDelicious
• Chocolate Chimp
• Bloody Sundae
• Caramel Preemptive Stripe
• I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands . . . with nuts

It Sorta Feels Like Suspended Animation

Minus the cryonics. What I am talking about is the economic uncertainty we are all facing daily. My husband and I talk every night, not about ambitious plans for our family’s future, but about contingency plans, lowering expenses, and shoring up savings. We talk about the lack of control we feel we have. We are still functioning, but we also feel we are slogging through high-viscosity porridge. Our vision is blurred, our voices are muffled, and we aren’t certain any longer where we are going.

Apparently, this new mode of living is to be expected. It’s all part of the “paradox of thrift.” What we are doing is perfectly rational, and perfectly detrimental.

Insecurity, cynicism, betrayal … If people are lucky enough not to feel some combination of these emotions daily, I want to know what they are taking. Driving the negativity is not only the dire economic reports we receive several times a day, or the disingenuous posturing of many politicians, it is the fear of job loss, watching friends and family members drop off payrolls and wondering, “Am I next?”

Losing a job is devastating: emotionally and financially. Unemployment raises anxiety-laden questions of self-worth and identity. Interestingly, surviving a layoff can also be debilitating, forcing similar personal assessments. The stressful work environment that exists post-layoff has real ramifications for many workers: depression, alcohol abuse, physical pain, insomnia. The Institute of Behavioral Science published research in 2003, examining the aftermath of layoffs not for those who are jobless, but for those who remain at the workplace. The results are not pretty.

The lower levels of job security and the higher levels of role ambiguity … directly lead to greater alcohol consumption and higher levels of depression and ultimately to more problems with alcohol, worsening physical health, and more workplace injuries.

This week, the Los Angeles Times ran an article referencing the IBS study and discussing the effects of “layoff survival” with workers and with experts. The take-home point:

Consequences are, unfortunately, long-term. The psychological fallout of surviving a layoff lasts six years, according to the study published by the Institute of Behavioral Science. And the effects of surviving multiple layoffs are cumulative. They add up rather than dissipate.

My husband has worked for the same company for nearly 12 years (quite a chunk of time in the contemporary American economy), and he has survived five layoffs. The most recent took place last week. The one before that: about 18 months ago. There are rumors more layoffs will come in June, and these “rumors” rarely lie. His resume is always in “launch” mode. We have a basic response plan at the ready. We live like we are a tactical unit — granted, one with a dog, a cat, a kid, and a mortgage — awaiting deployment orders.

Our experience is anecdotal, but I can attest the uncertainty does not diminish. The LAT article quotes a psychologist as saying:

It only takes one action of distrust to lose basic confidence in the employer. It’s like a romantic relationship. Once the trust has been undermined, it’s very, very difficult to recover.

Why write about this? Because I believe many readers might be feeling similarly, either as laid-off workers or as survivors. I believe there is a tendency to forget the actual people — all of us — affected in the melee of political blustering, faceless statistics, and sensational headlines.

I still believe Congressional Republicans are playing obstructionists, but I also blame Democrats and Obama for not better marketing and, in places, better designing the stimulus plan. In fact, I was going to write on this very subject, but when my husband came home on Thursday night, he and I gave each other a big hug, reminded ourselves we are a team, and when we sat down on the couch to zone out to the Lakers at Celtics, I realized I didn’t have the energy to fight the porridge.