The Spirit of Christmas Present

After a nice Christmas break from cartooning and posting on this blog, I have returned. My apologies to those of you who asked me why I stopped posting.  The inspiration for this cartoon came as a result of hearing about two cartoonist colleagues losing their jobs a week before Christmas. I was left wondering why they were told the awful news just before what is supposed to be a joyful time of family and celebration. Could the bean counters have waited just a couple of measly weeks after Christmas? Now you know why I draw cartoons for a living. Things like sentimentality and fair play have no role in the corporate office, where everyone is just a cog in the machine and nothing more. It's really pathetic, actually. Of course, they would argue business is business and that when it comes to severance, there needs to be a type of professionalism that I can't relate to.  When it comes to the newspaper business, those who do the cutting now may find themselves in a similar situation and 2009 is shaping up to be that kind of year. Perhaps they will not meet their end by the hand of a superior who coldly informs them to leave the building, but in the climb to the top of the corporate heap, when a competitor shoves them into a corner office as an "associate" in order to get them out of the way. It's a cold, cold world. Better bundle up for 2009.