Social Support

As Ashley slept late, Benjamin fixed breakfast for his wife, their son Robert, and himself and then prepared a sandwich and a snack for Robert's lunch box. He roused Ashley and asked whether she had seen his misplaced car keys. She groggily reminded him that they were on the workbench in the garage, where he had left them while working on Robert's bent bicycle wheel yesterday. Ashley dressed Robert for the school bus as Benjamin gave them both a hug and left to pick up the two other members of his car pool.

On the drive into the city, one of Benjamin's passengers mentioned that she was worrying about her father-in-law, who seemed to lose his way while driving, but her mother-in-law did not want to discuss Alzheimer's disease. The other rider mentioned that there was an Alzheimer's support group that might be able to suggest some ways in which to approach the issue.

At his desk, Benjamin was handling some routine paperwork when he was interrupted by an e-mail from a friend in another division of the company. The friend passed along a rumor that Benjamin's department might be downsized due to declining profits in the company as a whole. Benjamin experienced a cold sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and wondered whether he could find another job before falling too far behind on his mortgage payments. His next thought was to call Ashley on her cell phone, but he decided not to ruin her day on a rumor. Benjamin pulled up his resumé on his computer screen but found it hard to concentrate on describing his recent accomplishments.

Then, a co-worker who occasionally played racquetball with him dropped in to see about a game after work. Noticing that Benjamin was pale and agitated, he jocularly asked whether anything was wrong.

Benjamin initially declined to talk about it, but the co-worker persisted, and Benjamin finally admitted his concerns about a layoff. The co-worker disclosed that he had heard that some economic projections had been made of the salary and benefits savings that would occur if Benjamin's department were eliminated and the work were outsourced to consultants. But, the friend continued, the short-term savings were not substantial enough to justify the likely productivity loss, so no change was likely in the near future. Benjamin's stomach settled down, the color returned to his cheeks, and he asked whether they could squeeze a game of racquetball into the lunch hour because he felt the need to unwind.

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