One of the distinguishing characteristics of this Great Recession we’re currently in is how it has touched just about everyone in a very personal way.

It’s hard to find anyone these days who hasn’t experienced a layoff, buyout or other form of staff reduction, pay cut (or at least a pay freeze), benefit reduction, increase in benefit costs or a furlough. Just about everyone I know, and probably everyone you know, too, has felt this recession deeply and personally.

Even professional athletes, as I pointed out earlier this week, are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn, and despite the millions of dollars that many of them are still getting, they don’t like this downward trend any better than anyone else.

Despite all that we are collectively going through, it can sometimes be tough getting a fix on how some of these recession-coping remedies that businesses and organizations keep turning to are affecting real people. And, that’s why this story from The Miami Herald about how south Florida workers are adjusting to life after pay cuts is a sobering slice of 2009 America.

“The recession (is) hitting most workers in our wallets,” writes Herald workplace columnist Cindy Krischer Goodman. “We are adjusting to doing our existing workload, and more, for less money. We want to believe that the salary freezes, dwindling bonuses, commissions and tips and harsh pay cuts are temporary. But at the moment, the economy shows no sign that wages will rise anytime soon.”

And, she adds, “The consequences for families (to these cuts) are significant. For some, a husband’s pay cut has sent mom back into the workforce or forced dad to take a second job. Many have cut their Internet service, cable and dry cleaning or given up one of the family cars.”

Krischer Goodman knows of what she speaks. She got downsized and lost her part-time writing job at The Miami Herald back in March, on her birthday no less. Although the newspaper decided to continue to use her as a contract freelance columnist (she writes the Work/Life Balancing Act blog), my longtime experience as a newspaper editor tells me that she is getting paid a lot less now, with no benefits, to do more or less what she was doing before.

That’s better than nothing, of course, but if you’re like me, you are probably getting sick of hearing people say that you should be thankful for whatever you still have left.

Although she has quoted me in her blog and columns a time or two in the past, I don’t know Cindy Krischer Goodman except as a voice over the phone. But like so many people who are struggling to keep themselves afloat right now, I feel I know her all too well when she writes that, “I think this downturn pretty much wiped out any sense of employee loyalty, dreams of flexibility and hope of long term employment. … Yes, long term employment may be a thing of the past. But as this recession has taught us, reinvention and entrepreneurialism are a thing of the future.”

That’s good advice any time, recession or no, and something to keep in mind as you struggle to cope with whatever cutback has come your way.

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