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Life after layoffs

Posted on 19. Apr, 2005 by Bill in Employment News

Life after layoffs

Longtime Longaberger employees face finding jobs, furthering education or training in wake of latest reduction in work force

In the past week, Charlene McNerny has found herself in unfamiliar territory.

After more than six years of working at Longaberger Co., McNerny suddenly became part of the unemployment pool after the company slashed 360 jobs Monday.

“We knew it was coming, but we kept wondering every day if today was going to be it,” McNerny said. “But it was kind of a relief, like, ‘Let’s just get it over with.’ ”

Ironically, McNerny said she first came to Longaberger because she was looking for job security.

“I wanted a reliable job,” she said. “I wasn’t getting enough at my old one and I just wanted to make more (money).”

The Dresden-area resident finds herself entering a job market that has become increasingly complex and competitive.

“I’ve been working since I was 15,” McNerny said. “And when I was younger looking for a job, you showed up early, did an interview and got a job. Now it’s totally different.”

Resumes, cover letters and other integral aspects of the job hunt can be difficult for anyone to master. But to employees returning to the job market after working for many years, it can be completely frustrating.

“I’ve worked at a factory all my life and they say it’s never too late,” said former nine-year Longaberger employee Melissa Gardner of Zanesville. “But I’m a single mother who’s pushing 50. What am I going to do?”

Gardner said that even days later she is in disbelief.

“I would wake up startled at, like, three in the morning just thinking that I don’t have a job anymore,” Gardner said.

Feelings of anger, confusion and frustration are commonplace after a large-scale layoff, said Bob Mercer, supervisor of the Muskingum County Opportunity Center. For longtime employees of a company, coping with a layoff is similar to the grieving process.

“Right now, they’re just down,” Mercer said. “They’ve just lost their job for something they haven’t done (wrong).”

More than 5,000 in the past three months alone have come through the doors of the Opportunity Center, looking to get back into the job market. Mercer said the majority of workers re-entering the job force are intimidated by having to start over again.

“I think the biggest concern is that lack of confidence,” Mercer said. “And our job is to get that confidence back.”

The Opportunity Center, which houses the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Veterans Administration and the Muskingum County Department of Job and Family Services, offers online access to local and statewide job banks, as well as classes on interviewing techniques, resume critiques and even basic computer skills tutorials.

“From the time they walk in the door, we will try to get them back in the work force as soon as possible,” Mercer said.

The center can even help financially with job retraining and continuing education through state and federal funding.

“Nowadays, looking for a job is a job,” MCOC customer service representative Marge Artman said. “That’s why we have these services.”

While many ex-Longaberger employees saw the layoffs as the culmination of a downhill slide within the company, former employee Barb Lewis saw it as an opportunity.

Anticipating that layoffs were inevitable, the 18-year former employee has taken advantage of the situation by enrolling in the undergraduate program at The Ohio State University’s Newark campus.

“In essence, I’ve been kind of waiting for this, so I could go to school - to improve my own self rather than working for someone else,” Lewis said.

The Warsaw resident said she always wanted to get her college degree, but with work and two kids, the timing was never right.

After 46 years of life experience, Lewis said the timing now couldn’t be better.

“Now that I’ve gone through so many alleyways of life, I feel more prepared (for school) now than I was 20 years ago,” she said.

John Charlton, director of public information at Zane State College, said many longtime employees are returning to school rather than immediately re-entering the job market.

“A lot of times we see people with a lot of work experience but with no degree. It’s an opportunity for them (to go school),” Charlton said.

In addition to the basic associate’s degree curriculum, Zane State offers career improvement and job tutorials similar to those offered at the Opportunity Center.

The student population at Zane State, Charlton said, is made up predominantly of people like Lewis - nontraditional students who are looking to either gain the skills to start a new career or get the education in order to move on to a better one.

Doug Adams, a part-time student at Zane State pursuing an associate’s degree in business and marketing, decided to go back to school after losing his non-Longaberger job in 1998.

“I applied for different jobs and was told that I wasn’t young enough to do what I used to,” Adams said. “I saw the need to get my education up, get back to school and better myself.”

After landing a housekeeping position at Genesis HealthCare System, Adams said his time at Zane State was the best decision he ever made.

Now, the former warehouse manager has his sights set on a bachelor’s degree in business from The Ohio State University.

“It’s like being reborn. It’s opened up my mind and let me take the things I had already learned and apply them,” Adams said.

McNerny is trying to stay positive about her situation as well.

“I believe in the long run we’ll be OK, and things will get better,” McNerny said. “I refuse to let this get me down.”

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Tags: Employment News