For years we've heard young people need lots of praise and recognition. On my refrigerator I have a magnet with 100 ways to praise your child. You're best! Wow, you're a star today! Super job! I'm proud of you!

On other hand, corporations seem to have no alternatives. With squeeze on profits and stockholders and analysts anxiously watching, company leaders feel that they must act quickly or bear wrath of Wall Street. They understand that their response may in fact be a little shortsighted, but investors have short fuses when it comes to waiting patiently for earnings statements to turn around. Is there any alternative?

The answer is both "yes" and "no." In short term, some cuts may be essential, but it is far better to do so by use of a scalpel, rather than an ax. Why? Because your organization's long term future may well be on line and decided by how you respond to present economic downturn. Remember how, just very recently, most business were in a slightly different predicament? That's right. The problem was that we were all fighting over labor pool, especially for experienced, stable, well-balanced employees who were likely to actually come in to work on Monday and Friday mornings.

Prepare yourself, because those days are likely to return with a vengeance later this year or early next. It is unlikely that present economic woes will plague us much longer than a few more quarters. Then watch out! If you thought market for qualified workers was tight before, it is likely to become much more so in near future. Between early retirements resulting from present shakeout, both forced and voluntary, large number of laid-off and terminated workers who have opted for entrepreneurship and shortage of new workers, especially skilled, available to enter workforce in next few years, virtually all employers may be singing employee blues.