Based on the studies I have seen so far, Romania appears to have the lowest level of generalized trust out of all the countries in Europe – a mere 10%, compared to the 67% displayed by the country ranking at no.1 on this list. In other words, Romania is the country where people mistrust one another the most (or trust one another the least – as you like it); one practically thinks that out of ten people around him, nine are doing or are capable of doing something that is harmful to his interests.  Employees think this about their employers, clients about their contractors, tax payers about state officers, etc.  Consequently, everyone takes preventive defense measures and, more often than not, even takes proactive revenge on their “aggressors”.

 

Such a reaction is easily understandable, as it is one of the ancestral human features. What is however typical of our times is anticipative revenge: you take revenge on someone not because they have actually done something to you, but because you are convinced that, given the opportunity, they would have definitely done it — would not have hesitated to do it!

 

This is more or less what many candidates do upon receiving an unattractive offer from an employer. Instead of refusing it politely: “Thank you for your offer, but I don’t think this is the best option for me…” they jump at the opportunity of “punishing” the employer: “Are you joking? I thought you were a serious firm, the pizza place around the corner could have made me a better offer…” These might not be their actual words, but you can certainly read it on their faces and smiles that this is what they mean.

 

How many managers and entrepreneurs in Romania haven’t been through such an experience, haven’t lived to tell the tale of such an experience and how many of them have been dreaming of retaliating for the humiliation they have been put through?

 

Well, it looks as if the moment they have all been waiting for is January 2009! Some of them say it out loud (in private conversations, of course), others will do it more discreetly and some will even do it against their will, without realizing it. Soon enough social relationships will start changing visibly in firms: both between employers, employees or job seekers, and among co-workers/employees.

 

In entrepreneurial firms, especially in small ones, it is possible that the owners and their employees may succeed in putting up a common front against the crisis and strengthen their cooperation, knowing that they can only see it through together, that everyone must make as many concessions as they possibly can. Not many will follow this path, however, even if, at a declarative level, everyone will say exactly the same thing. And not because they wouldn’t want to, but because a shared commitment is very, very difficult to achieve in Romania.