Reconnecting more important than ever

I have spent a lot of time in the last 10 months reaching out to old friends and colleagues. And some have reached out to me, which is always nice.

One of the silver-lining results of the dismal unemployment situation is that folks are trying to stay connected or are reconnecting. These online reunions are bringing people together who haven't been in touch in a decade or longer. People are either out of work or fear they or someone they know will be jobless very soon, so they are networking online. Trying to stay in the game. As one columnist friend from The Washington Post wrote to me today, "We have to watch out for each other."

Surprisingly, some of the folks who are now in touch the most frequently are people I haven't worked with or seen in many years.

There are many ways to reconnect. Of course, there is always e-mail and phone calls. Receiving personal notes from old friends and colleagues improves my spirits much more than a one-line message on Facebook. But even the social-networking messages serve a purpose in this highly connected world, particularly for those of us who are out of the workplace loop.

Electronic reunions also take place on professional-networking sites like LinkedIn.com. Just today I wrote a recommendation of a fellow who I worked with 15 years ago. He returned the favor by posting some nice words about me, his former boss, on the LinkedIn.com site.

These reunions remind me of where I have been, who I have touched and help me continue to fight the good fight. It's not so much the practical benefits of these reunions that are important. After all, I am still looking for work. The reconnecting has not solved that major problem. But these reunions do provide a sense of what I have accomplished in the past, even if current circumstances aren't yielding positive results. It's important to feel something other than rejection and hopelessness in this recession.