On Bloomberg TV this morning Meredith Whitney put it as bluntly as it gets — laid off Wall Streeters need to lower their expectations and take a pay cut. It’s that simple.

Obviously this isn’t what anyone wants to hear, but here’s what she said word for word:

“The problem to date has been that those that have been laid off have been sitting on their couches because they do not want to take a downgrade in pay. They are not going back to work and the longer you are out of work, the more difficult it is to get a new job. My advice to them is take what you can get. It is very hard to transfer skills from a high-paying job…so recalibrate your expectations.

Read More: BusinessInsider