Be honest: If your boss prompted you to jump in order to keep your job, how soon would it take you to leap into the air as if your shoes double as a trampoline?
For those fortunate enough to still have their jobs, many have decided to fall in line and be on their best behavior in order to avoid standing alongside the millions of Americans now out of work.
Sudden embracement of punctuality, adjusted attitudes, and increased productivity aside, are there any other instances that you’re willing to bend on if it meant the difference between keeping a regular paycheck and collecting unemployment?
Last summer when gas prices shot up the state of Utah conducted an experiment in the form of introducing a four day work week. Though Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman still has until next summer to decide whether to make the change permanent, 70 percent of Utah state employees surveyed now say they prefer the shorter workweek.
Although these state workers find themselves working the standard 40-hour week in four days versus the traditional five for the sake of saving energy, others are looking to incorporate the amended work schedule to cut costs.
Toyota is considering placing workers in its Europeans factories on a four or even three day work week. Likewise, GE Hungary will incorporate shorter work schedules for about 40 percent of its workforce.
While some workers may be grumbling at the thought of their wages being cut, such a move is only way companies can prevent massive layoffs.
Even white collar professionals are finding themselves deciding whether or not to accept a pay cut or be sent to the unemployment line.
The New York Times has reported on how one law firm has decided that instead of laying off associates they instead plan to offer 1,300 of its worldwide employees the option of accepting a third of their base pay to not show up for work for a year.
Some, like one attorney profiled in the piece, have opted to use her $80,000 to go on a world tour. She revealed that she hopes to teach English to monks in Sri Lanka and help install alternative energy in remotes part of the world.
It must be good to be rich. Meanwhile as of today the closet I’ll get to teaching anyone English is trying to haggle for extra deli meat from the English-phobic butcher at the supermarket.
That being said, as awful as it sounds to take less pay at a time when inflation is being predicted to shoot up to highs not seen in decades, isn’t it better than not earning any income at all?
We can’t all tour the globe and channel our inner Captain Planet.
Email me at therecessiondiaries@gmail.com.
Michael Arceneaux hails from Houston, lives in Harlem and praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes. Follow him on Twitter.