That’s from a post on Eric Proulx’ web site Please Feed the Animals, devoted to laid-off advertising professionals. (See previous EconomyBeat entry.)

It’s a rather profound if bitter denunciation of what Proulx sees as hyprocrisy in the advertising industry, but in this day and age, where mass layoffs are considered a routine part of the economic cycle, I think it speaks to the feelings of many workers concerning the changing nature of their relationship to the companies they work for.

Don’t Call It a Family

I should have known better than to think the worst was over. That the anecdotal hires and increased headhunter activity signaled a respite from the putrid pall of pink slips littering our lives these last two years.

But no. Not yet. Not even close…

I’ve been able to distance myself emotionally from this absolute, indisputable fact. That is, until yesterday, when I stumbled on yet another post-dismissal drink- fest and saw, I dunno, a dozen amazing talents drowning themselves in their bottomless mugs of layoff lager. Some of them my friends. All of them too talented to be there.

I’m like the victim – not the criminal – who returns again and again to the scene of the crime. Or, as fellow animal Michelle tweeted to me yesterday, “You remind me of an Italian grandma who goes to funerals for social activity.”

Bukowski’s is where Boston’s ad scene goes to die. The otherwise amazing pub has been popularized by this brutal f***** business. This thankless, sure-we’ll-take-your-life-then-crap-on-it-when-we’re-done-with-you career we’ve chosen.

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Please Feed the Animals is a blog for “recently laid off advertising professionals,” created by copywriter Eric Proulx, who is also coming out with a film about the same topic, called Lemonade.

The blog features a useful section on companies that are hiring, and a column specifically for those in account services. But the highlight is the first-person accounts and reactions by those in the industry (or formerly in the industry) who’ve been let go. Here are a couple of good ones:

Don’t Fear the Reaper – Brad Mislow

The thought of losing my job used to freak me out. It was, in my head, the boogeyman of the office – hiding amongst the cubicles. Wearing a bloodstained hockey mask. Cutting short the careers of budding creative directors. It was merciless…It doesn’t want to hear your story about your family and your mortgage and your bills. It wants you gone. It wants your security pass and your office keys. It wants to laugh maniacally in your empty office as it dances on your desk, banging at your laptop, stealing your downloaded music and deleting your files…

Then it happened to me. And it wasn’t so bad. (My boss) told me the news as gentle as he could. He shook my hand and told me it was a pleasure working with me. I told him likewise. He told me to see some HR people. I saw those HR people, sadly hugged my partner goodbye and went along my way. No blood. No gore. No echoing cackle of doom.

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Even in this brutal economy, consumer trends develop, and Blame Flannel Shirts on Wall Street and Narcissus, from an advertising and marketing blog called Thought Gadgets, is an attempt to explain one of them.

To understand the current flannel fashion, let’s walk over to Wall Street and Greek mythology. First up, market psychology. There’s a saying that investors don’t pick stocks based on what they think will happen…or even what they think others predict will happen. Instead, market investors are three steps removed — if you think everyone else believes that others think the stock will go up, then you buy the stock. We guess about others’ desires to stay ahead.

Self-reflection starts with vanity

And everyone’s desires are tied to Narcissus…Narcissus was the handsome Greek lad who spurned the wood nymph Echo because he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool. Geoffrey Miller suggests that most humans consume goods we don’t need because we have bits of narcissicism in our psychology: the craving of others’ admiration. This is why people buy fancy leather jackets or watches or purses. You probably already have ways to stay warm in the rain, tell time, or carry cosmetics, but we crave new things because they signal our value to others.

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If you haven’t seen Recovery.gov yet, it’s worth a look. From the About page:

A provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 calls for establishing “a website on the Internet to be named Recovery.gov, to foster greater accountability and transparency in the use of funds made available in this Act.”

Recovery.gov went live shortly after President Obama signed the Recovery Act into law on Feb. 17, 2009. Given its primary mandate – to allow taxpayers to see precisely what entities receive Recovery money in addition to how and where the money is spent – the site displays easy-to-understand, user-friendly graphs, charts, and maps…

The site also provides an online way for reporting any suspected fraud, waste or abuse related to Recovery funding and projects.

As recipients of Recovery funds file quarterly reports about their spending and the status of their projects – including the number of jobs created and/or saved – Recovery.gov will update data and information accordingly….

To find what projects have been funded in your immediate area, type in your zip code on the interactive map. Then click on the colored circles to call up the funding recipient, the project status, and the number of jobs created or saved, as reported by the awardee.

The home page displays the latest tally of jobs saved or created, as reported by funding recipients, as well as how much of the original pool of money has been awarded to date. (As of October 30, recipients have only reported about $37 billion received, out of almost $159 billion officially allotted.)

Thus far, the site reports, 640,329 jobs have been created or saved by stimulus funds.

Last week we brought you Overheard in the Office. Now, some choice recession-related dialogue fresh from the Big Apple, espied on Overheard in New York.

Guy on phone with mother: No, mom! I’m not going to walk on Wall St today. (pause) Because I don’t feel like getting hit by a falling body, that’s why.

–Broadway & John St

Rich teen: I asked my mom to go to Louis Vuitton with me this weekend and she was like, “we’re in a recession, let’s go to Dolce.”

–42nd St

Guy: You know — it’s Dow Jones and NASDAQ.
Girl: Who are they? Those guys that died?

–14th & Park Ave South

Screaming child: Mommy, I want to go home!
Disgruntled employee: You think you have problems?! Try graduating from art college in the middle of a recession! Then you can cry!

–H&M Store

Guy wearing promotional cardboard, to another: I think I’m going to treat myself to health insurance next month.

–Broadway & 43rd St

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If you’ve been thinking of buying or selling a home, you may find The Housing Helix podcast by Jonathan Miller, who runs a real estate appraisal firm, of some use. He interviews a lot of real estate professionals, and mostly covers the New York City metro region. (Check here for an archive of his company’s reports on the area.)

Here are recent segments on the real estate picture in Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens, and of course, Manhattan (if you’re a movie star, unindicted hedge fund manager, or winner of multiple lotteries.)

Click on an image to see it full size.

More photos here.

Black Friday, as inveterate shoppers well know, is the name for the Friday after Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. This year, the day falls on November 27th. From Wikipedia:

Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employees have the day off (with the exceptions of those employed in Retailing and Banking), which increases the number of potential shoppers…Many retailers open extremely early, with most typically opening at 5AM or earlier. Some of the larger retailers such as Sears, Macys and Walmart have been reported to open as early as midnight…and remain open for 24 hours. Upon opening, retailers offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores.

In recent years, several Google pages-worth of web sites devoted to tracking retailers’ Black Friday sales ads have proliferated. Today, GottaDeal.com is causing Pavlovian palpitations among the sales-seeking set with its posting of what it says will be sales prices for over 150 items.

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We don’t wish to add to the considerable woes of the publishing industry, but if you’re looking for some low-hanging fruit in terms of cutting expenses, buying books may be it.

The marriage of electronic books and libraries has made it easier than ever to access free reading material online. And we’re not just talking Beowulf and Silas Marner, either. We mean the good stuff! (Literature majors, no angry emails please.)

Check out the New York Public Library’s ebook collection, for instance. The Unofficial Guide to Landing a Job might certainly be of interest, but graphic novels, sci/fi and fantasy, current events and politics books, and children’s literature are also on offer.

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Well, even with the unemployment rate so high, we know at least some people are working. How do we know? The web site Overheard in the Office, where people send in quotes they’ve actually heard in their workplace. Start with these…

Product development guy: I just got an e-mail in Chinese… What do I do?
Product development gal: Just copy/paste it into Microsoft Word and change the font.
Product development guy: It’s Chinese, not Wingdings.
Queens, New York

Office drone #1 at copier: I want a sandwich.
Office drone #2 at copier: It only prints and copies.
Hawthorne, NY

Female worker #1: As a smoker these days I really feel like a social leprechaun.
Female worker #2: You mean “leper”?
Female worker #1: What?
Canberra, Australia

Coworker to office: Woo-hoo! I’m almost done with my list! Then I’m going to have a little party with myself! Um…That didn’t sound good.
Seattle, WA

New boss to room full of employees: I want everyone to know I’m a friend. My door is always open… except for when it’s closed. When it’s closed I’m generally yelling at someone, so you won’t want to come in.
Memphis, TN

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