Posted on 03/03/2009 11:11:28 AM PST by Lorianne
TEMPE, Ariz. — Mark Cooper started his workday recently cleaning the door handles of an office building with a rag, vigorously shaking out a rug at a back entrance and pushing a dust mop down a long hallway.
Nine months ago he lost his job as the security manager for the Western United States for a Fortune 500 company, overseeing a budget of $1.2 million and earning about $70,000 a year. Now he is grateful for the $12 an hour he makes in what is known in unemployment circles as a "survival job" at a friend's janitorial-services company. But that does not make the work any easier.
"You're fighting despair, discouragement, depression every day," he said.
Cooper is not counted in traditional unemployment statistics since he works five days a week, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. But his tumble down the economic ladder is among the more disquieting and often hidden aspects of the downturn.
It is not clear how many professionals such as Cooper have taken on these types of lower-paying jobs, which are themselves in short supply. Many professionals are doing their best to hold out as long as possible on unemployment benefits and savings while looking for work in their fields.
About 1.7 million people, however, were working part time in January because they could not find full-time work, a 40 percent jump from December 2007, when the recession began, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Once again, we see that every generation has to re-learn the lesson that there no guarantees in life and no one can assure you of a living.
Move out illegals....Americans WILL do the jobs!!
And thus the title “survival job”. Give the man credit for not laying on the coach at home watching Oprah waiting for his bail out from Obama!
You gotta do what you gotta do. And it’s more dignified than sitting on welfare.
Grateful for $12/hr? That’s not survival, that’s doing pretty good. Reality check. Many of us work for less than that.
I'll reserve judgment until I see a photo of the coach. SHE could be a real babe.
Quit whining, Mark! 70k? Would love to get close to that.
A great many of us make a fine living on that or less an hour. We pay our house payments, our car payments, eat the food we grow and cook just fine, send our kids to college.
That’s part of the disconnect in our country. How can politicians who make obscene amounts of money have any idea how real people live?
There is nothign wrong with providing for your family in any way shape or form. You do what you have to do period.
Reading the article would give you a different perspective. No one is whining in it. They have good outlooks!
This was posted yesterday, so I’ve already read the whole article.
Mark Cooper is smart enough to know that a job is better than no job. No job is beneath you. The day after you are out of your old job, you better be looking for a new one. Within a week, you should be employed somewhere, even if it is for much less money.
If I was looking to hire a professional, and I had two resumes, one where the guy had been sitting on his butt for a year looking for the perfect job, and one where they guy had been busting his butt polishing doorknobs, I would choose the second one every time.
Bear in mind just because you gross $70k/yr doesn't mean you keep the $70k. In many places that salary is pretty much average or a little below.
It's all relative.
You’re a little mixed up.
Every generation has to learn to protect their country from the “free traders” and socialist politicians opportunists who feed off the economic instability that “free trade” engenders.
Then prosperity will reign and citizens can sleep peacefully.
That Cooper is a smart guy. You devote time each day to the job search, but put in a full day at work. This guy is not going to be held down for long, I don't care what the economy looks like.
During the last economic downturn, I wound up taking jobs as a temp. These were great jobs because you could walk in one day and be out on a job the next. I developed mad skilz as a typist (which I have since lost), and actually made pretty good money. I never had an assignment where I was not offered a permanent position in a month, and this was in downstate Michigan in the Eighties, when unemployment was something like 14%. The toughest part was figuring out all the phone systems.
You’re both right and I apologize for my rant. At work so I can’t really read the whole article. As some of the other posters said, at least he’s working and not living on the dole.
There is dignity in working. When he learns that, he will probably not only regain what he lost but be better off than when he started.
except if you work for government.
And maybe not even then...I've helped fire gov't employees, and my company had to lay off engineers when we lost a gov't contract.
LOL! The piece is likely more of a suggestion than an trend.
Americans always would. Only problem if an applicant has a lot of experience there are many times a company won’t hire them. It’s a sad thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.