Many from job ranks working for less
By Ryan Carter, Staff Writer© Pasadena Star-News, May 12, 2009
WEST COVINA - John Lehman still remembers the good old days when he made more than $200,000 a year. But those days are long gone. He's not an executive anymore. He almost lost his home in LaVerne and he had to get rid of his RV. After almost a year of unemployment, Lehman, 50, has joined the ranks of the work force who are working for much less - relying on skills they used when they started their careers.
It's not an uncommon story these days as companies shed workers from top to bottom. But it's a hidden one, as people who were making upwards of $70,000 a year are now quietly grateful to be making half of that just to get by. In unemployment lingo, it's called a "survival job." "It's been a big kick in the head for me," said Robert Attanasio, 48, a West Covina resident out of work for more than a year from his position in vendor management. "You just get to the point eventually where you have to look for a survival job," he said.
Lehman knows the feeling. He was a senior level executive who firms hired to turn their business around. But when the economy dried up, so did his work, leaving Lehman with a mortgage he couldn't afford and a high-priced life-style that didn't fit his new situation. At first, Lehman wasn't fazed. He'd find work at the same level and soon get back on his feet - so he thought. But months passed...nothing. In the meantime, the bills mounted. Finally, Lehman came to a humbling conclusion. He'd have to start applying for jobs up and down the labor market's food chain. "I had to go through a period of continuing to believe that I would strategize my job search to find...a position at my traditional level," he said. In March, he found something almost a year after losing his work. It was a middle-management position in the air conditioning and heating industry. But it was long removed from the role of initiating a vision for a company, building market share for faltering firms and securing accounts with major clients. These days, work is about managing day-to-day operations. "I have to re-learn to be a manager again," he said. "There's a mental adjustment going on. You're not participating in certain meetings you are very used to walking into. I find myself holding back in a way." But if Lehman finds himself holding back, others are tepid about even taking a job for less money and responsibility.
Gary Kaplan, president of Gary Kaplan & Associates - an executive search firm in Pasadena - faced some of that tepidness when he spoke to about 75 laid off executives last week. "I urged them all to not be overly selective in their quest for employment," Kaplan said. "I feel it's important that people take jobs that may not be ideal. It's imperative for the psyche." And that psyche has been hit hard, he said. "There's a lot of people out there just plain depressed right now," Kaplan said. "They just feel like they've failed." Given the tough market, it will be difficult for many applicants to hold out for jobs that meet all of their needs, Kaplan said. But when the economy turns around, those that continued working will be in a good position to move on.
Thirty years ago, Kaplan might not have given that advice. That was a time when loyalty was part of the agreement between a company and an employee, he said. But not today - when companies immediately turned to the labor pool to cuts costs. "If we're working in that kind of a corporate environment, where people aren't valued like they used to be, then you have every right to be a bit mercenary also," Kaplan said. Kaplan saw another theme emerge from the down-and-out executives: empathy. One former executive told him that she'd never look at hiring candidates the same way. She would go beyond the cookie-cutter approach to consider other aspects of an applicant's background.
Lehman's background gives him confidence as he walks his winding career path. He has volunteered, like Attanasio, to teach local classes for the local Employment Development Department. And Lehman's contribution to the new job? "I think they're getting a good deal," he said.
