Bank of America to cut 30,000 to 35,000 jobs

If you're a rank-and-file worker in corporate America, this has got to be one hell of a trying time.

In recent days, layoff announcements have been coming hard and heavy from virtually every sector - retail, telecommunications, the hotel industry and even the National Football League.

Sony plans to reduce its headcount by 8,000 jobs by March of 2010, the Wyndham Hotel Group says it will jetison about 4,000 positions through the first quarter of 2009 and the NFL plans to shed about 150 employees over the next 60 days.  

These companies are hurting for a variety of reasons - lack of capital because of tight credit markets, loss of consumer business, industrywide downturns ... the list goes on.

And it paints a grim picture.

But even in this climate, Bank of America's announced plan to cut 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over the next three years still takes my breath away. I mean, that's a LOT of jobs. Think about it.  Imagine a company that has, say 200 employees. That's not huge but it's not small either.

Now multiply those 200 employees by five and you get 1,000. That's a fairly big company - still not massive, but definitely substantial. But then take that same company with 1,000 workers and imagine 34 more companies of the same size.

Now we're beginning to capture the scope of Bank of America's layoffs. And these are not just numbers. They're people - people with children, jobs and piano recitals and scoccer games to get to. And they will be losing their jobs.

Hopefully, you still have yours. And if you do, consider this from Oscar Wilde:

"The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one."