Is it me or is Schadenfreude on the march? In the midst of all the headlines about wealthy bankers facing the ‘new reality’ of unemployment and comment about them not being terribly worthy of sympathy on account of their vast past bonuses, it’s as well to remember that not everyone can be sanguine about being cast out of work and that every job lost is a potential human tragedy.

 When big employers like Lehman Brothers collapse and others shed vast numbers of staff, there will be numerous people who face severe difficulties. And that’s something that some of those who seem to be revelling in the bankers’ misfortune would do well to remember.

In a crisis as deep and as global as this it won’t just be a few “City slickers” who lose out.

It’s certainly a lesson a fellow customer in my local Starbucks could well heed. Admittedly I was still waiting for my morning caffeine shot to kick in and was therefore half asleep at the time, but I came to in irritation as I absorbed his tasteless and feeble jokes about the meltdown in the financial system and the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The man, himself smartly dressed in thick City pinstripes and silk tie, seemed barely able to contain himself as he waxed lyrical about the waning fortunes of all those highly paid bankers and their erstwhile bonuses. How he laughed.

Cue a brief injection of compassionate common sense from his friend and there came a teeny little bit of sorrow for all the back office and administrative staff at Lehmans who would, he admitted, not have benefitted from the same safety cushion of bonuses as their former masters would have done.

No bonus, no Schadenfreude? That’s alright then.