Down and Out in White-Collar America

FORTUNE ^ | Monday, June 9, 2003 | Nelson D. Schwartz

[Tax-chick]

"Getting up every morning and going downtown helps me keep focused," says Hill after another day of working the phones and searching the Net. "My kids think I'm still working. My oldest knows I'm looking for a job, but not that I'm out of work."

What a jerk! Why isn't he spending some of his involuntary-vacation time with his kids, instead of lying to them?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Gee. Employment is affected by the business cycle. What a surprise.

Engineering was down for a long time, then it went sky-high, now it is down again.

Give it five years and it will be sky-high again.

What are you going to do? Repeal history?

[Ff--150]

Professionals have never had a tougher time finding a job. It's not just the economy; the rules of the game are changing.

--sounds like Robert T. Kiyosaki in one of his Rich Dad books

[Leisler]

If Brian Hill is so good, why doesn't he go independent, broker deals for % of the energy savings and pocket the profit?


Anyways, being at the rubber meets the road part of the economy, weather it’s the government or the back office, getting decisions from the paper shuffling class is a nightmare. Turf battles, butt protecting, blame and responsibility tossing, seems to be the main occupation. Oh, and fiddling with the copier, surfing and "finishing this report."

[henderson field]

The global economy. Do they know what they're doing? Engineering jobs are down, but they'll go back up. The trouble is, they'll go back up in China.

[theDentist]

Were you being sarcastic?

[dfwgator]

"Yeahh...."

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Do they know what they're doing?

You act like there is some sinister body in charge, saying "Okay, we are going to take all the engineering jobs from here and put them there."

News Flash: Nobody is in charge.

Lots of people would like to be, but the economy is no more controllable than the weather.

Maybe some jobs will go to China for a while, but I have not lost faith in America and our ability to innovate and do things better, faster and cheaper than anybody else.

Evidently you have.

Nobody ever said life was pain-free. You take the good times with the bad. The alternative is to despair and blow your brains out during the bad times, and miss the good times when they roll back around.

It's all up to you.

[Hodar]

What a jerk! Why isn't he spending some of his involuntary-vacation time with his kids, instead of lying to them?

I hope you were being sarcastic... if not, it's called "long-term planning". Sure, staying home and playing with the kids is fun, and it remains fun up until the bank forecloses on your home, and you lose everything. However, spending time looking for work, making contacts and fighting (yes, fighting) for an interview means that you will eventually have the chance to take the kids on vacation, and even have a home to go to when you get back. I don't know a single parent (Mom or Dad), or married couple that would rather be at work, instead of home with the spouse/kids. Unfortunately, most of us are not financially independent.

[AngryJawa]

At last, the voice of sanity. The doom and gloom threads are getting pretty thick around here.

[VOA]

bump

[Tax-chick]

I hope you were being sarcastic

No, I'm not being sarcastic, but notice I said "some" time, not all. Of course he should be looking for a job, but sitting in an office all day, while telling his family he's still employed, seems to me a bit much.

If he can't even be honest with his family, then I think losing his job has flipped him out!

And before you ask, my husband was unemployed from July of last year until ... two weeks from today! He spent lots of time on the phone and the Internet, going on interviews, working with headhunters, some consulting jobs ... but he also didn't hide in an office away from the family, and he didn't lie to us.

[american spirit]

I remember all the free trade propaganda about the US becoming a service economy and not needing all those nasty, dirty, factory jobs. Trouble is those factory jobs created a lot of white collar engineering, management, accounting and executive positions that've disappeared forever. Now we're in a situation where the vaunted service economy jobs are being shipped out as fast as the factory jobs were and I'll bet my last dollar that the fedgov is financing a lot of this through the AID (Agency for Int'l Dev.) and OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corp.) WITH OUR OWN TAX $$$!

[LizardQueen]

I'll bet my last dollar that the fedgov is financing a lot of this through the AID (Agency for Int'l Dev.) and OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corp.) WITH OUR OWN TAX $$$!

It is. An offshoring proposal that someone in a company I know of is looking at is from a company registered as a "minority owned business" in the state next to us! So they get preferential treatment to get contracts which they then ship offshore.

It's total BS.

LQ

[Leisler]

Germans and Japanese can't build plants fast enough in the states. No unions and low management employees, automation. That's what works for states manufacturing. The days of large, multi layered utilities and defense contractors is way, way over. Heck, when Lee Iacoca wanted to turn Chrysler around he first dumped a third of all white color jobs.

[dfwgator]

The newest scam is now for white business owners to hire a minority and designate him as the "owner" in order to be considered a minority-owned business.

[Mini-14]

bump

[Leisler]

Blame Willie, it's his one trick.

[Leisler]

Not new. Been around for twenty years.