How are you coping?

I have been wondering how you have been coping with the economic conditions we find ourselves in today. Are you an expatriate worker wondering what on earth is going to happen to you and, in many cases, your family?

Here in the UAE the downturn has taken affect. I had been asking the audience of my talk radio show late last year whether they were feeling any of the effects of the 'financial disaster.' (I'd rather call it that than a crisis, or maybe Banking Sector Total Lack of Responsibility.)
When I put those calls out, they fell on deaf ears. None of the English speaking expatriates who were listening to those programmes wanted to have anything to do with the rest of the world and the challenges it faced. It was as though they were protected by a cushion of soft cotton wool.
Today, however, everyone is talking about it and knows someone who has had to return to their country of origin, or send far less money home to their families, or go in to work wondering if they will still have a job by the end of the day. If they lose their job will they receive any kind of payoff? (in most cases no- it's simply a case of fending for oneself.)

Who is helping these people? Who is helping those managers who have to make employees redundant? Who is providing them support? Many of them have no experience of having to do such a thing in the past. Especially in a market that, up until now, had been growing steadily, and yet still far from mature unlike Asian, North American, Australasian adn European markets.

What next?

How long?

When will the good times roll again?