A client recently moved into a new senior human-resources job. She loves it, she says - but feels too guilty to admit that to friends and former co-workers who are all miserable in their jobs, if they're even lucky enough to still have a job.
Another client also got a new offer but turned it down. Though it was the job of her dreams, it was in a much less secure industry. In these times, she just wasn't willing to take the risk.
These two incidents capture just how emotions and attitudes have changed in the wake of the recession.
In 2010, there will be continuing reverberations from the grinding siege mentality of the last 16 months that has eaten into not only career prospects and pocketbooks, but also into psyches.
How will the next year shape up? From the comments of about 60 respondents to an online survey of senior managers and professionals that I conducted, along with what I've seen and heard from HR clients, here are some top trends that will dominate the workplaces of 2010.
LINGERING MALAISE
The wounds associated with prolonged employment anxiety have crushed spirits.
Many workers, especially the very introverted or those with high security needs, will continue to feel anxious about their livelihoods, regardless of their industry's fortunes. It will take time well beyond the economic recovery for them to regain optimism about their career prospects.
More hard-boiled workers will more quickly rebound. But we are unlikely to see unbridled optimism return in most workers over the next 12 months. Nor will many workers have great expectations for their careers, even those young professionals who, before the recession, were criticized for their cockiness.
Those who have felt stymied in their career or resent what the last year and a half has wrought on their company's culture will begin to make moves to explore options outside their current employer. But the jitters will remain: For the next several months at least, it will be more of a gradual reawakening than a mass exodus.
EXHAUSTION, RESENTMENT
Long work hours, bigger workloads, pared staff and career disappointments have left workers feeling depleted and cynical - and it will affect how they relate at work.
Workers who feel deprived will aggressively hoard resources. This will add more fuel to Darwinian organizational climates.
In such atmospheres, people are quicker to lose their tempers and be more defensive. The result - a continuing decline in workplace camaraderie and civility.
BOREDOM RISES
The recession created two classes of workers: those who, having lost resources and co-workers, found themselves with too much to do, and those who, with projects shelved and business down, found themselves with too little to do.
Either way, cuts to projects, lack of internal career opportunities and the reluctance of employers to assign tasks to anyone who can't hit the ground running have left many workers feeling bored.
That means many talented people are at jobs they can do with their eyes shut; in essence, they are being punished for being able to do their work. The employer ends up with a competent worker but one likely not giving his or her best.
SECURITY OVER PASSION
Before the recession, work in tune with values or offering meaning was at the top of most people's career wish lists. Now many, like my client, have put the importance of a steady paycheque over the excitement of a great job.
It will take time - and healing - before people's sense of personal security and confidence returns, and desires for work they can feel passionate about are put on the front burner again.
GENERATIONS SCREWED
Every generation is feeling its members are most bearing the brunt of the recession's effects. They see the generation above them blocking their progress and the generation below as competition for plum jobs.
This has created resentment that their work life has not unfolded the way they thought it would - whether they're older workers who can't afford to retire or Gen Xers eyeing executive jobs not about to be vacated.
Many worry most about the effects on young workers. Some of these twenty-somethings will simply give up, vulnerable to drifting into depression as they play video games all day.
