Third World America - Arianna Huffington [79]
He filled out almost five hundred job applications. Frustrated, Laman broadened his search, first to Indiana, and then as far as Chicago, where he finally received an offer in mid-March 2009. In a complete upheaval of his life, he accepted the job.
“Soon after, I found a room to rent up in Evanston, about six miles north of where I work, and I still live there. I commute home to Michigan every Friday night, returning on Sunday evenings, so weekends are rather short, but we are making it work. People thought at first that my wife and I were separated or getting a divorce. But no, we are fine. We just live in different states! Kind of funny really, but I got a better cell phone plan and with that and email, we stay in fairly good communication. At times, I find out what is going on via Facebook, too! … I think it is about attitude and priorities: If you go in with a good attitude, good things will come your way. As a result I am involved in many things that I never would have done before, including company volunteer work, a softball league, and exploring the city on my own on my motorcycle. All new stuff—and kind of fun. Things I never would have imagined doing back in 2006 when I lost my job.”
For many left jobless by the recession, resilience has meant hitting the books, so as unemployment rose, college enrollment—particularly at community colleges—also increased. When Patty C., a director of service for a health-care company in Denver, Colorado, was laid off from her job in June 2009, for example, she kept herself busy for the six months she spent unemployed by earning new certifications and heading back to school for a degree in health-information management. For Patty, losing her job was a chance to sharpen her skills and upgrade her qualifications: “We have spent our lives dedicated to the companies we worked for,” she said. “Now is the time to focus on ourselves and rethink our next career move.” Unemployment also forced Patty to slash her family’s expenses, which she did with the guidance of coupon blogs and websites dedicated to frugality. When she did land her next job, as an operations manager for a nonprofit organization, she said that despite a 25 percent pay cut, she felt “secure about the future,” confident in her ability to get by with less and certain that her new education would “open doors … that were closed before.”
Lesa Deason Crowe, a small business owner who lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, saw the financial crisis nearly destroy her twelve-person advertising firm. “It started in the news,” she recalled. “Every night, there would be another story about the recession, depression. This was in fall 2008. Clients started to get jittery and began to proactively get ready for ‘disaster.’ Part of that planning was to get rid of all the ‘fat’ in their budgets, which in my case meant cutting all advertising, marketing, and public relations work. My lowest point was when three clients quit in one day. I walked in, prepared for a typical monthly meeting, and the next thing I knew I was fired on the spot. Three in a row. Our two largest clients and our fifth largest. Gone.”
She tried to keep her prized employees busy, but she couldn’t shield herself from worry, which kept her up nights. “My husband was in Iraq, my son would be asleep, the house was clean and I would lie there awake, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Something like this haunts you. I worried about the people I work with, as well as my clients, because I care for them, they’re friends. I worried about the bills, about my business, about absolutely everything.”
Things finally started to take a turn for the better when Lesa got involved with the Rural Enterprises’ Women’s Business Center