Unemployed at 62, his plight may be a sign of the times (Barf alert!)

Here in the living room of what feels like a cozy English country cottage - china-blue walls, hand-painted antique chairs, latticed windows and fine woods - it's hard to believe the once-comfortable occupants are down to their last $2,500.

Not enough to pay their $2,000 monthly rent and $1,200 health insurance, never mind food or heat or gas.

But that's the very scary story of North Easton couple Dick Wilcox, 62, and his wife, Michele, 56. Dick was laid off from his $65,000, mid-level insurance company job a year ago. He cannot afford to retire.

And as a nation obsesses over war, its politicians seeming to forget the crushing effects of a jittery economy, Dick Wilcox has joined the unenviable ranks of older, unemployed, white-collar workers who can't find another decent job.

``It's like all it takes,'' Dick Wilcox said yesterday, ``is one crack in the system and you can go from having a really good lifestyle to being literally homeless.''

To prevent that is why he's spent three months now, morning after frigid morning, at busy Canton intersections. He wears fat mittens and a hooded parka over a neat suit and tie. And like an upscale version of your average street corner beggar, lifelong, middle-class taxpayer Dick Wilcox stands with a mix of humiliation, desperation and defiance behind the 4-by-6-foot plywood sign he made in his basement. And he begs, too.

``I NEED A JOB. 508-238-3226.'' That's what his sign reads in big black letters. ``36 Yrs. Exper. Insur/Mngmnt.''

Dick Wilcox has dropped off hundreds of resumes at companies and office parks. He's sent out hundreds more online. He's had two interviews and not a single job offer near the $50,000 he needs.

Now his severance, unemployment, modest savings and pension are almost gone. Michele Wilcox, who raised three children and supplemented Dick's income with a home crochet business, brought in just $9,000 this year. Her small business is yet another victim, it appears, of a shrinking economy.

A year ago, the couple planned to help an infertile daughter finance an expensive overseas adoption. They'd hoped to replace a 12-year-old car. Now, even if both find $10-an-hour jobs tomorrow, they're on the brink of losing their home.

Dick Wilcox, who has a can-do, take-charge aura about him - and unique ideas on making older workers more attractive - says he's still a bit stunned by it all. ``When I first lost my job I said, `Well, it's not the end of the world. I'll go out and find something else . . .' I never expected . . . this.''

Here is the good and bad news. Last week, his story made the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Since then he's had hundreds of phone calls, mostly from other older laid-off workers who are discouraged, too, ``and practically crying on the phone,'' he says. ``Out of work nine months, 14 months. Unbelievable, terrible stories.''

But he's also had calls from other media outlets, including nationally syndicated radio shows, cable TV's NECN and two of the three big morning network shows: ``Good Morning America'' and ``The Early Show.'' But the morning shows keep delaying him, he says, because of war stories.

Meanwhile, he says, not a single politician has called. ``They'd much rather debate the war than talk about the economy because they don't have any solutions. They just keep promising the economy's going to turn around. . . Now they don't even say it anymore and we've got tens of thousands out of work.''

Although media coverage has led to at least one promising interview offer, Dick Wilcox is taking no chances. He plans to be out again tomorrow morning, the corner of Route 138 and Washington Street, where people have climbed over snowbanks to shake his hand or bring him Dunkin' Donuts. ``One woman tapped me on the shoulder with tears in her eyes. She said, `This is the gutsiest thing I ever saw anybody do.' ''

He says that when he first thought of the sign, he was afraid to tell his wife or children. He was embarrassed, scared he'd seem like a failure, like ``some idiot'' standing in the road.

Yesterday, Michele Wilcox said she'd admired her husband's daring. Yesterday Karen Wilcox, their oldest child, said her father ``had proven us all wrong'' for ever fretting about his sign. She said her father had worked hard all his life and that when she heard him last week on the radio, ``I had tears in my eyes. . . . I'm so proud of him.''

It is important not to let a tech gap develop, but in many companies they actively sought to encourage early retirement until they realized the younger employees need mentors. That is how business used to be done. (From one who helped in the retraining probram.)

I agree..I am a retired nurse..never touched a computer till a few years ago....Old does not mean "untrainable" ..(although there is sometimes a resistance in the older folks to retrain)..but if it is that or the unemployment line..my guess is the training wins...

Young people have active lives..starting and raising families..older workers often live for their jobs..an attitude that is a real benefit fo employers

BTW I read an article in a Tech mag a few years ago that engineers are "old " ten years after graduation..there skills are dated and because new grads will work more hours for less pay they are often fired to make room for a 5 figure new grad (or foreign engineer) ...There is security for no one unless they keep their skills current and are willing to do more than they are paid for..a truism in todays job market

That line I wrote and you quoted barely made sense.

I was pointing out that a growing mass of middle aged guys are being displaced and feel it was done to them.

When they see our "leaders" celebrate the acts that wrecked their lives they get angrier.

You then state that only the jobs that are menial, low tech and of no importance will go away. Those jobs supported families of men who now are at their most vulnerable.I didn't say they were owed jobs, but they see it as having had them taken away in an act that can only be described as betrayal.

If you didn't see the call centers in India five years ago, what makes you believe your high brainpower job will be here in five more? Is that also inconceivable?

Lastly, the government can not and does not ever help. This ruinous situation is the result of their stupid globalist crap that they claimed would help.

All it has brought is ruin and anger.

Fifteen thousand dollar weddings financed by parents with borrowed money, is just a little more than children should expect or recieve-but that decision rests with the parents. Said parents though should expect no sympathy from less doting parents who married their children off with less pomp and splendor, but just as genuinely married non the less.

Another reason to pay for one's own wedding.

This deserves a bump, I was an engineer, BSEE, MSEE and got a teaching credential and left engineering for "job security". Imagine my chagrin ten years later to find that the school district had to cut back and I got "laid off". Well, I put my resume out and found that my engineering skills were completely wiped out by the ten years teaching, even though I taught math and computer programming. I was offered a few non-descript jobs but my aerospace friends hired me back because they knew who I was. I quickly went back to school for an MBA to stay current, and on the job developed new "state of the art" skills. The moral, when I retired, I was in no danger of losing my job, I had stayed current and valuable. (PS retirement still is more interesting than work.)

If you didn't see the call centers in India five years ago, what makes you believe your high brainpower job will be here in five more? Is that also inconceivable?

Nope. Not inconceivable at all. There's been a lot of speculation on my team about what will happen to us. The general consensus is that if they outsource our jobs, we'll move. Meanwhile, we're working to ensure that we're too valuable enough to move.

I also have a plan B and plan C, and substantial savings. And a wife that's willing to work if necessary, as well (plan D?).

I still think that as the Boomer generation ages out, the problem will be not enough workers, rather than too many.

I think that new opportunities will open up as a result of all this. For instance - if manufacturing is going overseas, there still needs to be a way to get product back into America. I read an article not long ago that said if current trends continue, the West Coast ports will be completely maxed out within three years. More infrastructure will need to be built and the current systems will need to be improved. Ergo, more jobs, more opportunities, etc.

Also, I think that these changes will positively affect small businesses (don't have specific numbers, but small business employs the bulk of American workers). Small business can't afford to outsource due to current economies of scale. I think that they'll snap up many of these workers that have lost their jobs due to outsourcing. What will the influx of new workers and new ideas have on these small companies?

...For instance - if manufacturing is going overseas, there still needs to be a way to get product back into America...

Manufacturing isn't going, it's gone. If/when they get to your job, there will be no point in sending anything back here because we will be a bankrupt nation.
I don't see anybody snapping up workers. McDonalds is laying off and even the pubs around here are near empty.

Rhode Island was third world decades ago but I've never seen it so bad.

I don't know.
Maybe I have too much time on my hands and read too much.
I'd get a job or something but that would be taking away from someone who needs it.

It's a question of degree. To say that this is the worst job market EVER is probably a bit of an overstatement. I realize there is some restructuring going on in the economy and that consumer confidence is low. That doesn't change the fact that some contingency planning is always in order.

If you cannot survive an economic downturn, then you have not done a proper job of financial planning. You don't have to be a genius to do it. What is required is discipline and willpower. Sadly, this is what is lacking in our culture right now.

Gratification delayed has somehow become intolerable in our society. When I hear these complaints, they often come from people with too much house, latest and greatest car, TV/DVD/Surround Sound, finest furnishings, expensive clothes/shoes, golf club memberships, entertainment/dining 4 nights a week, credit cards maxed.

Shed a few pounds, then come talk to me about tough times.

This kind of fatalism is sad. I've got news for you. Nobody is pushing globalism. It pushes itself. It cannot be avoided. We are no longer just losing low skilled jobs, we're losing high skilled jobs. We must be competitive. We must improve public education. We must improve our infrastructure. The US is facing economic and competitive pressures now that it has not faced in many years. If we don't want to be a third world nation in another century, we're gonna have to get up off our pity potty and compete.

Oh, this downturn was as obvious as a screaming siren down main street in a small town. Could see it coming for years. What's not obvious, is how there's going to be a comeback.

Nobody pushes globalism? Who were all those guys celebrating the tenth anniversary of the idiocy called NAFTA a while back?

I tell you, right or wrong it is perceived as treason by those hurt the most by it.

I have a son that is an EE ..just 3 years out of school and working on a MBA with the thought of Law school to follow..We both read the article on the guy that had a PHD in engineering that was managing a Radio Shack in San Diego...

BTW my son had just been offered a part time job at a local two year college to teach math and computers before he relocated (because his job "disappeard" in adelphia's bankrupcy)

He has said he wants to teach in retirement..so your story is especially sad for me to hear..

ethics should be taught by someone who has been around the block a few times.

Of course. Still, some 26 year olds can teach ethics quite well. Many young grads are nothing but stuffed shirts, while others have indeed been around the block. 29 would be the cut-off age for most. Few under 29 should be out without their mother.

To say that this is the worst job market EVER is probably a bit of an overstatement.

Yeah it might be somewhat of an overstatement but it is bad out there.

If you cannot survive an economic downturn, then you have not done a proper job of financial planning. You don't have to be a genius to do it. What is required is discipline and willpower. Sadly, this is what is lacking in our culture right now.

I am in great shape and could survive 10 years without a job. My house is paid for, cars paid for, and no credit card debt and good investments. I did the right things but I know this is not all my doing. Not by any means. There are people who do everything right and end up hammered. The people on this thread who look down on them need an attitude adjustment.

Still I have no compassion for my neighbor who has 120,000 dollars worth of cars, a 20,000 boat by his 160,000 dollar house with 2 mortgages and maxed cards and is thinking he may have to go bankrupt. He dug his own pit.

My daddy said,"If you make your bed you lie in it." - "He that provideth not for his own house and the occupants there of is worse than an infidel."-"If you don't get what you like, learn to like what you get."-"A penny saved is a penny earned."- etc., etc.,. Naturally he didn't take credit for coining those axioms, but they were the credo he lived by.

I pray for the best for this guy and his family, and if I saw them hungry, or homeless, or needing assistance for survival, I would lend them a hand. I do not believe that even Jesus would suggest that those who have never even dreamed of living the lush life style that this gentleman and his family enjoyed before he was laid off, must trash their own fragile cushion of security and use it to support this guy and his family in the life style they have come to expect.

I have yet to read one response on this thread that mocks the plight of this family or gloats at their tribulations. Most of us just feel that flipping burgers, mopping floors, or bagging groceries is a more honorable and helpful step in the right direction, than standing out in the cold with a big sign, begging for work. Sending resumes in pursuit of employment from Computers in the public library, after work, makes more sense than what this guy is said to be doing.

There were some pretty sarcastic responses on the thread..it was the tone that set me off....I do agree that the standing on the corner is not productive..and IF he can find work at MacDonalds he should take it..

There are other questions like what about his wife? Does she work? Can the kids help out? etc...actually more questions than answers

I poke at the "kids" here that feel secure..the scripture that comes to me is 1Cr 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Pro 16:18 Pride [goeth] before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Interesting story. Just curious - where did they live at the time? Were they Russians, Poles, Germans, other? Was it war related or political? What happened to your parents after that?

It was war related. Both sides of my family are German. My mother's side lived in Poland, and my Dad's side in East Prussia. This happened on my Dad's side in East Prussia. It was right toward the end of the war, and the Russians were marching through to Berlin, I believe. The Russians killed my father's whole family. My father barely escaped. He went through quite a bit. He was later sent to a Russian concentration camp, where he nearly died of typhoid. He eventually escaped to Germany while doing forced farm labor. My parents met a few years later in Germany, and then they married after my Dad immigrated to America. They had to work really hard and make a lot of sacrifices, but they succeeded in providing a better and easier life for their kids. :o)

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