I sometimes get accused about being too doom-and-gloom about the economy, and I’ll certainly cop to that.

The fact is, my perspective is colored by the many different hats I wear in my daily life, including being the editor of a publication and Web site that focuses on how to better manage a workforce.

That’s also why I’m probably more attuned than most to drums I hear beating in the workforce jungle, and the message they seem to be signaling to me. And, here’s what I am hearing:

• The first message is that the long and unrelenting recession has pounded into workers a pervasive sense that their jobs, their livelihoods, and perhaps even their lives and well-being are at great risk every day. People everywhere are down, depressed, and many are close to giving up hope, if they haven’t reached that point already.

• As bleak as that is, the secondary message is equally troubling, and it is that working people seem to have little to no confidence that things will get better, for them or for our economy, any time in the foreseeable future.  

Three stories today drove this point home for me. One, from the Indianapolis Star and titled “Hoosiers join nation in worrying about economy,” focuses on the notion of how even the normally optimistic people of Indiana are starting to show their concern about the state of the nation’s economy.

“Bob Watson feels lucky to have a job,” the story begins. “Lindy Cosme has a job, but not one she went to college for. Ronnie Woodfork has been looking for a job every day and still doesn’t have one. Three Hoosiers with different situations, and all three remain worried about the economy.”

A second article, in USA Today, focused on what is probably getting to sound like old news by now—that financial worries are dogging older workers.

The story says: “Faced with increasing job losses, worries about having enough money for retirement and continued difficulty in paying for basic items such as food, those ages 45 to 64 are one worried group,” according to a survey released this week by AARP. “… The survey, called ‘A Closer Look,’ was last done about eight months ago. The recession’s full effect is now being felt, new findings show.”

And probably the most depressing story of the three was in The New York Times out of Paris and headlined “Suicides in France Put Focus on Workplace.” It doesn’t waste any time in getting to the grim news:

“A recent spate of suicides at France Télécom has revealed a paradox at the heart of French society: Even with robust labor protection, workers here see themselves as profoundly insecure, with many complaining about being pushed beyond their limits by the pace of economic change.” The newspaper adds, “What has caught the attention of the French media, public and government is that many of the suicides and more than a dozen failed attempts have been attributed to work-related problems by some experts and labor officials.”

It makes me wonder: If workers are so depressed and tormented that they are kicking up the suicide rate in highly unionized France, what does that mean for us across the pond in America, where we toil in a largely at-will, you-can-be-terminated-tomorrow work environment?

This also gets back to a theme I have been pushing that perhaps needs to turn into a drumbeat of its own: With a possible economic recovery on the horizon, it is time for America’s business leaders to step up and start helping America’s workforce out of its funk.

What is this going to take? As I said in my “Last Word” column, I think it’s simpler than most managers think: “More communication from the top would help. So would some sense of when the pay freezes and furloughs might end—even if that’s not right around the corner. And a greater recognition (and appreciation) of the sacrifices everyone is making would help build a sense that ‘We’re all going to get through this together.’ ”

That’s my formula for getting America’s workforce out of the funk it’s in. It’s not particularly complicated, but it begs the question: Where are the business leaders who have the courage to be trailblazers and take the first step? I pray it won’t take too long, because I’m still listening for those drums and that message.

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