A friend of mine spoke to me this week and said s/he was doing focal reviews at my old employer, Yahoo!  "You know what that's like," L said, and then there was a pause. "Only, it feels kind of different because we're not giving anyone--anyone--raises, or promotions."

Welcome to 2009, where having a job is enough of a reward for working your ass off. Especially at Yahoo! where the belt-tightening has to deepen, still.

My friend is expecting that much of the team is already looking around; a few are waiting for the other shoe to drop, i.e., in 3 months, will they still have jobs? Meanwhile, on Yahoo's careers website--there are jobs listed--but 85% of them are marked "Future opportunity" meaning we won't be hiring anyone until the bloodletting is done.