You know what I get really tired of? It’s the never-ending flow of stories that chronicle just how terrible this Big, Bad Recession is for America’s workforce.

Yes, things are bad, horribly bad, although there are some small but slightly encouraging signs that perhaps the badness of 2009 has bottomed out and that things will continue to be less bad in the months and years ahead.

So, that’s why it’s depressing to read a story like this from The Washington Post: “Lying Low After a Layoff—Some Terminated Employees Work Hard to Keep Up Appearance of Having a Job.”

Here’s the part that caught my eye:

“Even as the ranks of unemployed and underemployed have grown, career counselors, therapists and other experts say a certain segment [of the unemployed] is determined to suffer in silence, keeping details of job losses and financial pressure secret from all but close family and friends,” the Post story says. “The problem is particularly acute in affluent neighborhoods in the Washington region, experts say, where the self-worth of high-achieving professionals is deeply intertwined with their jobs. There might be 14 million unemployed people in this country, but in this town—with its A-types and status seekers—failure still is not an option.”

Although this story is focused on “high-achieving professionals” in the Washington, D.C., area who are out of work, I suspect that the feelings of loss and shame that the Post writes about are feelings that many unemployed around the country feel as well. Stories like this are more common in this recession, the newspaper story notes, “because the downturn has hit more middle-class and affluent families than usual.”

There’s a reason this story was the second most-read on www.washingtonpost.com: It’s because it resonates with such a broad cross section of people. Even if you’re not unemployed, you probably know someone who is and worry that it could still happen to you. Plus, people who still have jobs have also been affected in many different ways—with hiring and salary freezes, record-low pay increases (if you were one of the fortunate few to get a pay increase), furloughs and all other sorts of reductions and cutbacks.

And, here’s another scary tidbit: An Associated Press story I read today in a number of newspapers (here’s a version from the Denver Post) said that “some economists say unemployment may not return to healthy levels until 2013.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve been focused on things improving by late 2010 or sometime in 2011. Looking to 2013 for an employment recovery is the bleakest forecast for a rebound I’ve heard or seen anywhere.

The unemployed guy at the center of The Washington Post story—a former business development manager at an aerospace company—probably spoke for a lot of people when he said, “It’s a bad time to look for a job. There are far fewer jobs out there. A lot of families are suffering.”

He’s right, of course, and it just shows how the workforce repercussions coming out of the Big, Bad Recession will be long-lasting—especially if we’re not looking for a real employment recovery until 2013.

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