Recession PTSD Has Returned
I lived through this in 2008. Now I’m living through it again — and so are my students.
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
“So, there’s no salary, per se. It’s more of a… well, it depends on how hard you work.”
I was in a nigh-abandoned office building somewhere in some unknown corner of New Jersey, 2,000 miles from home, looking at this greasy fortysomething White man whose cheeks looked like they were full of yarn balls and who wore tiny, pointed bangs over his forehead trying to compensate for his bald spot. “This is it,” I thought. “Rock bottom.”
It was the summer of 2008. The Great Recession wouldn’t hit until August, but it was certainly looming large enough that by the time I’d graduated college in May, the phrase “hiring freeze” had become the most common response to a job application. Entire industries were falling apart, and it felt like I’d never have a job ever again. In fact, “hiring freeze” is how I’d ended up in New Jersey.
My dad was swimming in frequent flier miles — this was back before the airlines dried them up — so he hooked me up with a ticket to New York so I could go beg for a job from my dream company that had shown interest. Now…
