Lynn Parramore: The Disease of the 21st Century!

Remember Dilbert, the mid-level, white-collar Cubicle Guy of the '90s who could never seem to get ahead? In the 21st century, his position looks almost enviable. He has been replaced by Waiting-For -the Other Shoe to Drop Man. Across America, freaked-out employees are coping with sweat-drenched nights and heart-pounding days. They're reaching for the Xanax and piling on the work of two or three people. They're running the risk of short-term collapse and long term disease. The hell created by three grinding years of 8 percent-plus unemployment brings us plenty of stories of what people suffer when they lose their jobs. But what about the untold millions who live in chronic fear that tomorrow's paycheck will be their last? Research shows that the purgatory of job insecurity may be even worse for you than unemployment, and it's turning the American Dream into a sleepwalking nightmare. From young temporary workers to middle-aged career veterans, Americans are being pushed to their physical and psychological limits in what has the makings of a major national public health crisis. We're supposed to be a nation of cockeyed optimists, but many feel like haunted wanderers in a dark forest, knowing that the slightest turn of the foot could fell us: Just ask Alan L, a 32-year-old from Queens, New York. The pat ahead should have been bright for Alan. After several years as a music industry publicist, he took the ubiquitous advice of the mid-aughts and went back to school for a bachelor's degree. Yearning to do something more meaningful, Alan imagined teaching or perhaps working for a non-profit, a job that would put his double major in history and political science to good use.