Persevere Amid Grim News

The sirens were wailing last week as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Housing Authority both indicated that layoffs would be part of their budget-trimming efforts and Mayor Bloomberg hinted that more than a few municipal workers also had reason to feel uneasy.

It's too early to panic — if people actually lose their jobs, it's not likely to occur for at least a few months — but it's also likely that the threats aren't just storm clouds that will pass, as they often do, with a sudden surge in tax collections.

The continuing grim news from Wall Street — with Citigroup the latest financial giant to suddenly be in critical condition — coupled with a strapped national economy means that outside forces aren't exactly riding to the rescue with open checkbooks.

Public employees have reason to feel frustration as well as distress about the fiscal picture: the economic woes are not of their doing but they could have a major impact on their jobs, even if they retain them, since cuts in agency services are going to stretch them and make it more difficult to perform well. But just as government work provides a security that often is scarce in private industry, it can be affected by events beyond the control of its employees.

Part of the problem on Wall Street is psychological: fear that the worst is yet to come has caused a climate change, from too little caution to too much. It is important that public employees not become infected with a similar type of paralysis.

The best thing they can do is to continue performing their jobs capably, without becoming bogged down by concern about how they may be affected by the cutbacks to come. Those represented by unions have the reassurance of knowing that they will do what they can to manage the problems so as to minimize the fallout.