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&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;alignleft size-full wp-image-2347&quot; title=&quot;empty-office&quot; height=&quot;136&quot; alt=&quot;empty-office&quot; src=&quot;http://www.recessionwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/empty-office.jpg&quot; width=&quot;150&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;The last time I saw my office, it gleamed.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;L-shaped and lining the far corner of the room, the desktop was smudge-free and freshly polished. My flat-panel monitor stood proudly at the bend, my shiny laptop next to it. My Herman Miller chair was pulled up neatly to the desk, ready to offer support.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;It was exactly as I&amp;#8217;d always wanted it to be&amp;#8212;as it almost was the moment I moved into the space, in the spring of 2007, when I was upped from an over-sized cubicle to an office with a door (a door!), my name emblazoned next to it.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Since then, I had added my chair, worked the lighting to soften the fluorescent glare, arranged the guest seats to be welcoming. It was warm, efficient, buzzing with possibilities.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;For nearly two years, from March 2007 to January 2009, my office had seen tears and toil as we built &lt;em&gt;Cond&amp;#233; Nast Portfolio&lt;/em&gt;&amp;#8217;s website from an idea to a serious player on the Web. The stress often tested the limits of staff members&amp;#8217; psyches. For some, my office provided welcome respite and, with the door closed, a place to vent and release. For guests visiting the magazine, it had been a place to stop by and say hello.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Over time, the place had become messy. Messy enough to inspire comment. But it was &lt;em&gt;my&lt;/em&gt; messy. And it was my office. And anyway, I worked with my head down, oblivious to the piles of magazines and papers around me. When I turned around to counsel or meet with co-workers, the mess was out of view.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Since I left my job in January, I&amp;#8217;ve grieved the loss of my office. I still wake up looking forward to turning the key in the lock and the space where I achieved so much. The next thought is still the shock of reality and the remembrance that, as layoffs were carried out, they took my office from me.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;The problem with all of this is that I&amp;#8217;ve got the pronouns wrong. None of this was ever &amp;#8220;my&amp;#8221; or &amp;#8220;mine.&amp;#8221; It was always, and still is, theirs&amp;#8212;no quotes needed. These objects (that&amp;#8217;s all they are)&amp;#8212;the desk, the chair, the monitor, the laptop, the cell phone I carried everywhere&amp;#8212;belong to the company that employed me. I wasn&amp;#8217;t even a renter. I never held any claim to them.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;So why do I seem to grieve their loss? Do I have any right to?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;It&amp;#8217;s a strange emotional pact we make with employers, but one we hardly stop to consider when they offer us loads of money&amp;#8212;or even simple job security. We are all of us rent-a-workers, needed until we aren&amp;#8217;t, or until we decide to go.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Hegel said&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt; that work gave the workers &amp;#8220;a rudimentary sense of personality.&amp;#8221; Marx saw it as providing a keen sense of integration. There are other views.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;In the 2001 book &lt;em&gt;Chained to the Desk&lt;/em&gt;, a book about workaholism, Bryan E. Robinson wrote, &amp;#8220;Clinicians generally believe that work addiction is a consequence of family dysfunction in childhood.&amp;#8221;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;A.S. Tsui et al. (1997) called the&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt; employee-employer relationship&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt; an &amp;#8220;unbalanced overinvestment,&amp;#8221; in which &amp;#8220;the employee is expected to undertake broad and open-ended obligations, while the employer reciprocates with short-term and specified monetary rewards, with no commitment to a long-term relationship or investment in&amp;#8230;the employee.&amp;#8221;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;At the &lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Department of Labor&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;, the dynamic is simply this:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;PADDING-LEFT: 30px&quot;&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;The courts have made it clear that the employment relationship under the [Fair Labor Standards] Act is broader than the traditional common law concept of master and servant.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Cold comfort, considering that, once the &lt;em&gt;relationship&lt;/em&gt; is over, like a master-servant relationship, all reverts back to the company.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;Until then, the objects that fill our working lives &amp;#8211; the desks, chairs, computers, offices &amp;#8211; are simply physical manifestations of all our jobs mean to us: stability or power or achievement or status or community or simply a paycheck or the solid rock of consistency. Formica table-top as security blanket.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;The grief associated with job loss is discussed &lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;in the same language&lt;/font&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt; as grief following loss of a loved one &amp;#8211; the same stages apply.&amp;nbsp; That&amp;#8217;s some consolation. But unlike losing someone close to you, when you mourn for a job, you mourn illusions. Once that&amp;#8217;s clear, can you ever take another job again? Of course, you must.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Arial&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;--Posted by Laura Rich, RecessionWire.com &lt;p&gt;Cookin&#39; for Love: Hot Tomato &lt;br&gt;Happy Holidays! Here&#39;s Your Pinkslip &lt;br&gt;Recession Briefing 2.27&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/font&gt;

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