Not Working Nation: Tales In Transition

Marques, sports reporter

Where do you live? Northern Virginia

What was your job title? Reporter.

In what industry? Newspapers.

How old were your coworkers? 30s, 40s, 50s.

How did you find out you were losing your job? Phone call upstairs, told in person.

Did you have to leave immediately, or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? I had until the end of the week.

Tell us a little about what you did: I covered professional sports

What was your favorite part of the job? Talking with successful people, experiencing different cities.

What was the worst part? The mood in the office.

Did you like going to work? When on the road, yes. Going to the office, no.

Did you feel like you were making a difference? We all want to believe that.

What have you done since you've been laid off? Spent time with my family, applied for work.

Have your spending habits changed since you've been laid off? (Have you cut back on anything? Given up coffee?) I was already pretty thrifty.

Do you have big financial worries -- kids in college, etc.? When the transition pay runs out, I'll let you know.

Do you have a spouse who works? Yes.

How many jobs have you applied for since you've been laid off? At least 8.

Are they in the same part of the country or someplace else? Same part.

What kind of job are you looking for next? Will it be in the same field or a different one? Why? I'm open to anything.

Julia, 25, Forensic psychologist

Where do you live? Jacksonville, N.C.

When did you graduate or move? Graduated in May, moved in July.

What was your field of study? Forensic psychology.

How long have you been actively job-hunting? 8 months.

What sort of job are you looking for? Anything at this point.

Any interviews? I was called in for an interview, only to be called back a couple of hours later to find out that the job had been filled.

What are your biggest obstacles? (Do you have to move back in with your parents? Do you have a mortgage to worry about?) My husband is in the Marine Corp and his current duty station has us living in a small, isolated town with limited job opportunities. I'm finding my education is making me over qualified for most of the jobs in the area and because I have spent so much time in school and I don't meet the experience requirements for the jobs that are in my education range, I'm sort of stuck in limbo.

What are your biggest frustrations? I think the most frustrating thing is sending out countless applications daily and never hearing anything. Is anyone out there?

What are your biggest fears? Never getting hired.

What do you do all day? Job applications, cleaning, taking care of the house, the dog and my wonderful husband.

Do you have big financial worries -- family obligations? Loans you're supposed to pay back? A growing credit card bill? Student loans, student loans, student loans and a growing credit card bill.

Any final thoughts? I wish there was more job support for military spouses. 

David, 26, biomedical engineer

Where do you live? Richmond, VA

When did you graduate or move? May 2009

What was your field of study? Biomedical Engineering/Mathematics/Physics

How long have you been actively job hunting? I have been looking for a job since graduating this past May.

What sort of job are you looking for? Ideally, I would obtain a position as biomedical engineer and develop cardiac medical devices, such as, artificial heart valves, ventricular assist devices, and implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Alternatively, any mechanical engineering job would suffice. Regretfully, the job title, fry cook, is looking like an excellent position with plenty of room for advancement.

Any interviews? What's an interview?

What are your biggest obstacles? (Do you have to move back in with your parents? Do you have a mortgage to worry about?) I need to get reestablished. In other words, I need a short-term job, an apartment, and a car.

What are your biggest frustrations? I can't find a car.

What are your biggest fears? That I will stay underemployed.

What do you do all day? I tweet on my-face-space-book blog. Also, I babysit my two year old nephew.

Do you have big financial worries -- family obligations? Loans you're supposed to pay back? A growing credit card bill? I have a hefty amount of school debt. I do not have any credit card debt.

Do you have a partner or spouse who works? No.

Any final thoughts? I'm considering putting together a fake resume just to waste the time of the human resources department. I'm bored and frustrated. Yes, I received my PhD from Harvard.

Annie, 58, librarian

Where do you live? Western, KY

What was your job title? Circulation supervisor

In what industry? Libraries

How old were most of your coworkers? From 20's to early 60's. Mostly 30 somethings.

How did you find out you were losing your job? Boss just said I didn't know what I was doing. I had been a librarian for 20+ years. Why couldn't she just tell the truth? She just wanted to put a part-timer back on full.

Did you have to leave immediately or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? They took my key and time card and I was gone. Now they won't even answer when people ask about me.

Tell us a little about what you did: Trained and supervised staff. Oversaw daily library operations. Helped patrons with reference questions.

What was your favorite part of the job? Being able to help patrons.

What was the worst part? Having to stand on my feet all day and not being allowed to help people like I had in previous jobs.

Did you like going to work? Yep--pretty much. Had some favorite patrons I enjoyed seeing.

Did you feel like you were making a difference? Not as much as other libraries where I have worked simply because I was not given the chance. I did have some patrons who asked my advise on things.

What have you done since you've been laid off? Finished an online medical transcription course and searched for jobs. Am taking a medical coding course on my own.

How do you spend your days? Job searching, studying, reading and being bored!

Have your spending habits changed since you've been laid off? (Have you cut back on anything? Given up coffee?) Have cut out everything but food and housing. No insurance so no checkups, etc. and cutting back on my medicine. Can't afford it.

Do you have any big financial worries? Yes-how will I be able to go to the hospital when my health crashes due to lack of medicine? How can I keep the house?

How many jobs have you applied for since you've been laid off? Since the end of May -- 75.

What kind of job will you apply for next? Will it be in the same field or a different field? Why? Anything. I've exhausted all possible library jobs without going back to school. Can't afford that so am trying different options. With our local unemployment rate at over 12%, not much to choose from--not to mention the age discrimination that goes on.

John, 39, content delivery

Where do you live? Falls Church, Va.

What was your job? Associate Director for Content Delivery

In what industry? Management consulting

How old were you coworkers? Late 30s through late 40s; the support staff was mostly early 20s.

How did you find out you were losing your job? You can't make this stuff up - I came back from bereavement leave following the funeral of my father-in-law. On my first day back, I was summoned to a meeting to discuss how my position was going to be affected by a company-wide re-organization. Within 25 minutes I was out on the street with my desk contents in a box...

Did you leave immediately, or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? left immediately but was not formally released for another two weeks. As I had been with the firm only about a year, I also received no severance package (a fact that no doubt played a role in the decision to release me as it was certainly cheaper vs. releasing more experienced employees).

Tell us a little about what you did: Went to a movie that afternoon, then a bar that evening where the bartenders gave me a few for free, then wallowed in self-pity for a couple of days. After that, I started looking immediately for a new job.

What was your favorite part of the job? The travel opportunities and speaking engagements. I also felt committed to the company's mission and service, and it was one of the more organized outfits I'd worked for.

What was the worst part? Toward the end of 2008, I would say that the aforementioned level of organization began to falter as priorities began changing from week to week as the economy worsened. ("Don't do that! That was LAST week's priority!") That and the unexpected manner of my release with no warning and the lack of honesty with which it was handled. ("You don't have the kind of experience we need in light of the new reorganization" vs. "We're cutting you because we don't have to pay you severance, even though you have the highest GPA in our group at the moment...")

Did you like going to work? Very much. Despite the gripes, I thought it was a good place to work and enjoyed working with the people I had in my group. There were the natural differences on occasion, but it was a good unit.

Did you feel like you were making a difference? Being an admitted cynic, it nauseates me to answer this affirmatively, but the truth is that I felt we were making a difference for our clients and that my role played a significant part in that.

What have you done since you've been laid off? I ramped up my exercise routine and began teaching myself to play the guitar. I also never stopped sleeping on a weekday work schedule (i.e., still up by 7:00 a.m.) and continued my job search in the mornings and afternoons with "sanity breaks" in the middle of the day.

How do you spend your days? From 8:30 to noon I would job search on the Internet, follow up on leads, plan meetings and coffee appointments with contacts, etc. Mid-day activities usually involved walking the dogs, swimming, or jogging just to clear my head for a while. Afternoons were back to e-mails and networking with a sign-off time of 6:00 p.m. or so.

Have your spending habits changed since you've been laid off? (Have you cut back on anything? Given up coffee?) GIVE UP COFFEE?!?!?! 8-o No, most of my habits are still the same but have been accelerated due to the extra free time. We did, however, make some major financial cutbacks (canceling cable TV, for instance - the withdrawal tremors stop after about two weeks, by the way - and selling our Honda Accord back to Carmax.)

Do you have big financial worries? Kids in college, etc.? Big ones, no; immediate and usual ones, yes. (How will we be able to make ends meet on one salary, how long will this search take, can we look at our 401k plans without reaching for the Jack Daniels bottle too frequently, how will we AFFORD Jack Daniels, etc.)

Do you have a spouse who works? Yes.

How many jobs have you applied for since you've been laid off? Far too many too count -- probably well over 200.

What kind of job are you looking for next? Will it be in the same industry or a different one? I've continued to look in management consulting but have also broadened my approach to PR and marcom positions.

Sheri, 39, customer service, courts system

Where do you live? Orlando, Fla.

What sort of job did you hold? Dep Clerk III, Sr. Customer Service Representative

 In what industry? Government

 How old were most of your co-workers? It varied from 20 something to over 60 years

 How did you find out you were losing your job? Our Clerk of Courts worked tirelessly with the administration staff to keep us informed and in the know due to misleading articles being published and put out by the local press.

 Did you leave immediately, or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? I did not have to leave immediately. We were given the option to Voluntarily Separate with a small incentive package or possibly face layoffs with nothing. We had about a good month to decide.

 Tell us a little about what you did: I worked in the call center for the local courts once it was established. I was one of the "Original 10" that was there from the beginning. I help defendants, customers, judges, the press and attorneys on the phones in their dealings with the courts for civil, traffic, domestic and criminal issues. It was very stressful and even though the clerk fought tirelessly for money for us, it was thankless work and never enough money to get ahead. The years flew by and when I first started I was so happy about being in a place that carried a good reputation and was something impressive to say when asked where you worked. But I noticed that over time, listening to the hurt of the community, not being able to explain why a judge ruled the way they did, hearing the father's who had not seen their children in years crying at 1 minute to 5pm day in and day out, the shiny facade wore off. I found myself still having to work more than one job, sometimes up to 3 or 4 to make ends meet. I was a single parent for most of my time there.

 What was your favorite part of the job? My favorite part of the job was when I was able to truly help someone. Make their situation a little more bearable and give them the confidence to move forward through their crisis. Some of the people I worked with were such amazing individuals.

 What was the worst part? When I felt like the system failed people. Not being able to enjoy working just one job. The workman's comp injuries and the debilitating headaches I started having towards the end of my employment.

 Did you like going to work? In the beginning, very much so. But around year 6-7 I must say my attitude changed dramatically. I was getting sick due to stress and working so much and my attendance was horrible. Which threatened my job so that was an ever present nagging. I was just exhausted, stressed and broke.

Did you feel like you were making a difference? Yes , When I was there, my prayer was to be able to really help or make a difference to at least one person a day. The majority of my calls usually ended in "you are the only person I have talked to that knows what they're doing and you are the only one that cared enough to help me."

What have you been doing since you've been laid off? I have put out a ton of resumes online. I finally am organizing my home office. I have been working for another company from home since around March, just in case there were layoffs. I have reorganized my information for my notary/wedding business on most of the online advertisements I have and even talked to a person about opening a small office for my notary/wedding business. I feel like I am working harder now for myself. I did take a small weekend vacation on the beach. I have physically gone to two interviews and the second company offered me a position starting in August. They may also be willing to let me telecommute. I sure hope so because they are way on the other side of Orlando.

 How do you spend your days? I try to stay in bed until 9am or close to it then I get up and go in my office and get online and start looking for jobs and submitting resumes. i check my emails for wedding and notary leads and do a little housework in between to get out of the office. I am more organized than I ever have been at home. My bunny gets more of my time as well.

 Have your spending habits changed? I don't drive a lot, but with the money we recieved I have made two purchases that were about 400.00 each. I don't eat out very much. I have yet to go to the gym, event though everyday I get dressed like I will go.

How many jobs have you applied for since you've been laid off? At least 20-30 possibly more.

What kind of job will you go for next? Will it be in the same industry or a different one? I am looking for a support job that I can do from home like data entry, non-sales customer service, preferably something with benefits if possible since I only have about 2 more months of benefits left from my last job. Preferably in the legal field or customer service (call center), non-sales. Due to my permanent knee injury, I am limited on standing, lifting, walking and such. And with these migraines, I need the ability to have a flexible schedule. I never know when I am going to wake up with one. I must say they have drastically decreased since making the decision to separate from my last job. Lastly, I am tired of office politics and tired of long drives and tolls, where most of your money ends up going and you are still struggling to make ends meet. It is like you are working for nothing. I also enjoy working for myself. I want a better quality of life. I don't live a lavish lifestyle but I want to live now, not just sub(ex)sist.

Joe, 44, graphic artist: Moving out and moving on

I think the last job I lost was the worst.

I was employed at the Raleigh News and Observer as an Ad Designer, and did mostly car ads - hardly inspiring work. As such, I did the best I could and actually did some fun things, but after a few years, it wasn't that great anymore.

During this time, I became active in a hobby and its community. With the size of the community, it wasn't hard to rise through the ranks and develop a reputation for working hard and having a unique skill set in design and print. So I began leading events and started an online magazine. As you may have figured out, everything that I didn't use in my job came out here. And after awhile, the staff noticed.

My last review was not good, mainly because my supervisor had gone on to another job, so her notes were probably read, but not used. I wasn't a good worker, nor did I communicate well...in fact, the head of department didn't know what to do with me. In his consideration, he put me on probation and gave me a raise of 2%.

The really sad thing here is that the max raise they were giving was 3%. And HR had to figure out a protocol to define how people got their raises by a checklist. Literally, a check would be a fraction of a percent. And the raise didn't match inflation. So there wasn't much reason to care.

My review time was a month, so I went through it and did okay, but was asked if I was going to be at the office for my birthday. I said I should be...but I called in sick.

The next day, I was let go. When I got to the office, I had a note on my keyboard telling me to go to the department manager's office. And when I got there, my manager and her manager were there. And I was told, "We don't need you anymore," and was asked to surrender my ID.

I was escorted out of the office, with the department manager (the guy who reviewed me) escorting me. As we left, I was told that I would be able to get my stuff out later that week. And as I was 
led to my car, the manager said, "You knew it was going to end this way."

"Now's not a very good time to lecture me," I tactfully replied. 

A few days later, I returned to the office and got my stuff. One of the other managers asked how I was doing, "I really don't think it's any of your concern," I told him. But inside of one month, I got paid for running a national convention, then got funding to launch a magazine that I now run. I am just beginning, so it's been bumpy. But it's also been exciting.

And my old department? Within a year, half the staff was let go. The economy got the paper hard, and the future is still pretty bad for them. 

So I look forward to what tomorrow will bring - it has opportunities, and I just gotta be sharp enough to catch them!

Joe, 44 of Raleigh, N.C., is editor of Brick Journal.

Randy, 38, chemist

Where do you live? Raleigh, NC

What job did you hold? Staff Scientist

How old are/were your coworkers? Most were in their 20s or early 30s. A few were in their 40s. How did you find out you were losing your job? My boss told me first thing on a Monday morning that I was being laid off. It was a one-on-one kind of thing. He was apologetic about it and gave me as long as I needed to clean up and update his right-hand guy as to where I was in my work.

Did you have to leave immediately, or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? I left within 2 hours of being notified.

Tell us a little about what you did? I was the "fixer." I got things to work that weren't working previously, and I also worked on some of the more unusual projects that came along.

What was your favorite part of the job? Using my brain and my hands, and not being tied to a desk all day.

What was the worst part? Meetings that felt more like interrogations.

Did you like going to work? Not every day, but most days.

Did you feel like you were making a difference? In some small way, yes. I always wanted to use my chemistry knowledge to help clean up this rock in space we call Earth.

What have you done since you've been laid off? I've done a little traveling, an odd job, worked on projects that I either didn't have the time or motivation to finish while I had a job.

How do you spend your days? I've spent a good amount of time on the internet. I spent several hours one day updating my resume. I'm a gamer, not a serious one, but I've spent a little too much time with the XBox. I at least finished making my way through Guitar Hero World Tour. The finale, "Satch Boogie," was tough. Now I need to start on the real guitar stuff.

Have your spending habits changed since you've been laid off? (Have you cut back on anything? Given up coffee?) Give up coffee? Civilization would have to break down on a pretty heavy scale for me to give up coffee. I have drastically reduced the frequency of eating out, however.

Do you have big financial worries -- kids in college, etc.? Not at the moment, knock on wood.

Do you have a spouse who works? Yes.

What are your days like? Right now, a little too unstructured.

How many jobs have you applied for since you've been laid off? Two.

Are they in the same part of the country or a different part? Same area.

What kind of job are you looking for next? Will it be in the same field or a different one? Why? I'd like to find something in my current field, but those jobs are hard to come by now in the environmental field, so I may have to provide my analytical skills to a different type of laboratory. I have been thinking often of finding something completely different to do, whether it's just another type of job working for someone else, or starting my own business. The problem lies in the fact that I'm not sure what either of those would be, so I guess I'm not ready yet for that kind of change.

Peter, 51, newspaper editor

How old are you? 51

What job did you last hold? I was an editor at a newspaper in Kentucky

How did you find out you were losing your job? I was asked to come in early for an important managers’ meeting, after working until about midnight the night before. At the managers’ meeting, the editor announced that she was resigning to take a position at a university. Then she gathered the staff in the newsroom and announced her departure. We knew that layoffs were coming too; my newspaper had been asked to prepare a plan to eliminate 15 percent of the staff. Immediately after her announcement, I was asked to go to Human Resources.

Did you have to leave immediately or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? I got the impression in HR that I was expected to work out the remaining two weeks before my job was officially eliminated. I worked the night I was laid off and it was miserable. (Dozens of my co-workers were laid off the same day; some left immediately, a few worked the full two weeks.) On the second day, my former supervisor called me in to his office and said he wanted to make clear that I didn’t have to work if I didn’t want to – the company could put me on administrative leave. I decided to finish the shift and say goodbyes as people left that night.

Tell us a little about what you did when you worked. I was a reporter and an editor on both the metro and copy desks. (For those not familiar with how newsrooms are structured: Assigning editors work with teams of reporters, planning, editing and updating stories online and for the paper. Copy editors read the stories after the assigning editors are done, to give them a “fresh set of eyes” and make sure errors haven’t been introduced or missed by the assigning editors. At this stage, pages are designed and headlines and photo captions are written. I worked mostly in news but from time I edited sports or features copy. I was in charge of the newsroom on Sundays and some weeknights.

What was your favorite part of the job? Editing, especially when I was able to turn a bad story into a good one.

What was the worst part? For the last two or three years, the constant need to lower my expectations about what the paper was able to do as its staffing diminshed.

Did you like going to work every day? Yes.

Did you feel like you were making a difference? Yes. Almost always.

How do you spend your days now? On the internet? Job searching? Drinking coffee? I volunteer at an anti-poverty agency that works primarily with women and children. I’m spending more time there, more time at the gym, more time doing housework, more time asleep. I’m writing a novel that had been rattling around in my head for years. But I’m surprised at how time-consuming unemployment has proved to be. Although I’m trying to avoid relocating, my job search is pretty broad-based, and there are many places to look online. The days I dislike are the ones I spend almost entirely on the computer – working on my resume, looking at classifieds, networking. I recently found a temporary job, which I haven’t started yet, so I have eased up on that temporarily. I have done a little traveling. But mostly I’m at home at the computer.

Have your spending habits changed since you've been laid off? Not appreciably. I have severance pay and unemployment benefits.

Do you have big financial worries -- kids in college, etc.? Not immediately, but my son has been accepted to a private college. He is deferring college for a year – his idea, not mine – so I won’t be feeling the financial pain for a while. But that also means my daughter will start college before he finishes.

Do you have a spouse who works? Yes

How many jobs have you applied for since you've been laid off? Seven

Are they in the same part of the country or a different part? All are local.

What kind of job are you looking for next? Will it be in the same field or a different one? Why? It will almost certainly be in a different field. I don’t think newspapers will be a mass medium for much longer – not because they aren’t needed, but because they aren’t appreciated. Too many people are much more interested in Jon and Kate’s troubled marriage than in how their government is performing. They’re much too complacent about their eroding civil rights – Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act, cameras in every business and on every streetcorner. The ironic part, to me, is that the people most pleased by the demise of newspapers are the ones who are most mistrustful of government. Who’ll be keeping an eye on politicians when newspapers are feeble or gone?

Talk about anything else you'd like to talk about. I found my temporary job at the unemployment office, which is funny because it would be hard to find a more dysfunctional place. I went down to get some questions answered about my unemployment benefits, but there were about 40 people ahead of me and it appeared that only two staff people were there. After about 20 minutes, when only one person’s name had been called, I gave up. But I found my job on a list at the center’s job resources office. I’m saddened by the demise of loyalty in the American workplace. I do not think it makes businesses more competitive if employees are considered disposable and workers view jobs as temporary. In many cases there are no humans involved in the job search until the interview stage, and most of the places to which I’ve applied haven’t even acknowledged receiving the application. Down the road, I think companies will pay a price for that lack of sensitivity.