Down-sized but not down: ‘Better days are coming,’ says Boston medical librarian

By Kathleen Kenna

Peter Droese was “down-sized” last spring, but he’s not down.

Peter Droese

The 39-year-old medical librarian has overcome so many challenges in his life, that he’s viewing unemployment as an opportunity.

Droese has returned to school to get a degree in vocational rehabilitation counseling, to work with returning veterans and other people with disabilities.

He’s had a strong career as an information resource specialist as the University of Massachusetts Medical School, senior faculty at Cambridge College‘s grad school of management, and health policy librarian at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“I need a real job, just like everyone else,” he says from Boston. “It’s been tough these last few months. My unemployment will run out … and I don’t know how much longer I can drive.”

Yet, Droese emphasizes, “Better times are coming.”

There’s no particular reason for this optimism, except Droese’s strong resilience.

Born premature, he had open-heart surgery at only 10 months of age. He was very ill before he learned to walk. His family was cautioned that cerebral palsy would prove so limiting, that Droese wouldn’t be allowed to go to school.

“My mom led a campaign for educating children with special needs,” Droese recalls.

Such tenacity is obviously in his genes. As a youngster, Droese dreamed of becoming a Boy Scout, despite multiple incidents of detached retinas that threatened his vision, and an early diagnosis of hydrocephalus, a potentially brain-damaging condition.

“My only dream was to see Eagle Scout,” he says.

Droese reached that goal by Grade 7, the highest honor for any Scout.

“I did it because I wanted to prove I could do anything,” he says, adding that his greatest high school achievement was going to Russia as an exchange student.

Considering his family was warned that Droese wasn’t worth educating as a boy, he went on to earn degrees in human studies and human services (Bradford College), then a Masters in library and information science (Simmons College).

Yet college was interrupted by a traumatic brain injury and infections as a result of the hydrocephalus, and Droese had to learn to talk again. His solution? Toastmasters.

“I went to Toastmasters as part of my rehabilitation. I used public speaking to retrain my brain,” Droese says. “I used it to practice for job interviews.”

His determination paid off: Droese became so skilled at public speaking, he was asked to deliver the keynote address at a national library science conference.

“It is what it is,” Droese says matter-of-factly. “You just go forward.”

After losing his job at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in April, Droese says he applied for the Masters program in vocational rehabilitation counseling at Assumption College because “I’m ready for my next challenge.”

He adds, “I view it as a protective measure, to deal with the layoff.”

Droese recalls meeting someone professionally who had been involved in one of his brain surgeries, and realizing what a difference that one specialist had made in his life.

“There are so many veterans returning from war with hydrocephalus,” Droese says. “If I can make that kind of difference in just one life, it would be worth it.”

He’s seeking work in vocational rehabilitation as a result, that combines his skills in case management and project management, information services and career counseling.

Droese admits that a job search can be discouraging in a market like Boston, despite sending out resumes and cover letters, and tapping his network daily.

“It’s been a roller coaster these last six months,” he says. “This recession we’re in now is just as bad as the last Depression. My students would tell me there are no bread lines, and I would say, ‘it’s just hidden.’ ”

Job searching is more difficult now, “especially because employers are looking for the perfect candidate,” Droese suggests. “They don’t know what they want — maybe the last person in that job. He doesn’t exist anymore.”

Droese credits his optimism to a good support network of family and friends. Married eight years, he has one son, six-year-old Luke, and says having a close family “has really been amazing.”

See Peter Droese’s profile at LinkedIn.

‘It seems we’ve decided a middle class is a luxury we can’t afford’: Unemployed and skeptical about retirement

Jim Berrie took a buyout from his newspaper in 2008, discovering the U.S. had changed even more dramatically than he had imagined:  Retirement is stretching out of reach.

“Even after the stock market crash, I fully expected I would get another job right away,” he says from his New Jersey home.

It wasn’t a voluntary buyout, but at least Berrie kept benefits and a small pension, after almost 20 years as a copy editor-paginator.

“They kind of had the gun to our heads,” he recalls.  “They said if we stayed, we could get re-assigned, as security guards at a warehouse. Or the paper would be sold and the new buyer would fire everyone and we would have to re-apply for our jobs, at lower salaries.”

Berrie wasn’t unemployed long before he was invited to return part-time. His $1,700 weekly salary was cut by two-thirds, and the only shift offered was at night, adding a 70-mile commute that was “rough”, partly because the extra miles meant a monthly surcharge on his leased car.

It’s ironic that the newspaper section Berrie was helping produce was called Good Times.

Soon, he was promoted to arts and entertainment editor, doing all the editing, layouts and pagination for two sections, working with five freelance writers.

“I was making a fraction of the money I used to make, but then they set me up so I could work at home, and only commute one day a week. I like what I’m doing, and the hours are more flexible.”

The financial hardship, however, was tough to accept.

Berrie’s wife, a speech pathologist, was working from contract to contract, as social services were slashed. She often went without income for weeks.  Then their son graduated from college and the family had to start paying back his loans.

“It was tough,” Berrie acknowledges. “There have been times ….” His voice trails off.

“Times when we fell behind on the mortgage a month or so,” he adds, admitting the three-career family didn’t expect that. “We’re caught up now.”

At 60, Berrie is scrambling to continue applying for jobs in public relations and advertising, “just trying to get my foot in the door.” But the skills of a copy editor — “people who know language” — are diminished “when there are no standards on the Internet.”

Berrie boosts his income by proofreading and copy editing at a community newspaper one day a week, and proctoring tests for the Princeton Review.

Baby Boomer nostalgia:  ‘America’s most prosperous time’

“It’s certainly scary.  There’s a kind of disconnect in the U.S. now,” he says. “The economy doesn’t seem to be rebounding the way it should, and a lot of people are losing their homes and jobs. I’m a Baby Boomer and I grew up in America’s most prosperous time. It doesn’t look like it will ever be that way again.

“It seems we’ve decided a middle class is a luxury we can’t afford.”

Berrie, 60, figured he would be retiring at 65, and now admits he can’t plan for retirement, financially or psychologically.

“We spent all our 401Ks keeping up the mortgage,” he says. “I might be desperate enough to start collecting Social Security at 62” if family income doesn’t improve.

“I fully expected I would be at (my paper) until I retired, so we feel very threatened,” Berrie says. “That stock market crash in ’08 really killed.”

Still, he’s boosted his pessimism with exercise, losing 60 pounds with the help of a personal trainer.  Berrie was so successful in maintaining a strong workout routine, that he aims to become a certified personal trainer too.

After interviewing a contestant from his town who appeared on NBC’s The Biggest Loser, Berrie is keen to turn private weight loss success into financial gain.

Glamorous life of freelance photojournalists: Gross pay for 2011, less than $10,000

By Kathleen Kenna and Hadi Dadashian

Hadi Dadashian photo

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, this was the worst of years:  Our 2011 income was lower than at any other time in our lives.

This includes years when we returned to school in our 40s and 50s; years when we were new immigrants; years when we first started careers in our teens and 20s.

Yet we worked full-time, often long days, seven days a week, in 2011.  We applied for jobs; paid for background checks, transcripts, and other documents.  We even had a few — very few — interviews.

To paraphrase Dickens again, it was the best of years:  We explored our new state of Oregon, then the Pacific Coast, from Canada to California, as travel writers/photographers.  We had a lot bylines, a lot of published photos, and a lot of fun.

We explored new states, like Colorado.  We began a travel blog — tripsfor2 to share experiences that didn’t make it into newspaper, magazine and online stories commissioned in the U.S. and Canada.

We had big, color spreads; front-page bylines and photo credits; and Kathleen’s first fashion story in a 40-year career as a professional journalist.

As much as we like paid bylines, it was even more exciting to meet readers from around the world, from Singapore to India to Italy and Britain, and all across the U.S., through three WordPress blogs.

Our photos improved, inspiring Hadi to start a photoblog, On Forest Creek.

But we were getting frustrated  by our job search — a daily grind of cover letters and resumes and online applications that prompted few replies or interest.

That’s why we began Hire Your Neighbor:  We wanted to ignite a national conversation about record unemployment in the U.S.

We know there are 25 million unemployed Americans, so we’re trying not to take our own joblessness personally.  (Tough for Kathleen, whose disability bars her from getting health insurance.)

As Kathleen kept telling clients when she was still employed as a job counselor:  It’s not personal.  It’s a recession.

We talked the talk, and walked the walk that Kathleen outlined at job-search workshops (when she was still working as a job counselor):

✔ Job-hunting is a full-time job, so treat each day as a work day, tapping networks and applying for positions, online and in person;

✔ Pick up new skills; try new things; read and learn and grow;

✔ Stay healthy; keep a positive outlook, as much as possible;

✔ Volunteer.

Granted, earning a near-poverty income is tough after you’ve spent $5,000 on a Green Card (Kathleen), and more than $25,000 on tuition, books and other school expenses (both of us).

But we didn’t have any student loans.  We have no debts.  We live frugally — but well — and keep our expenses low.

It hurts to have earned so little this year, yet we’ve learned a lot, as online publishers and freelance photojournalists.

Given our experiences and everything we hear from other job-seekers, we believe the best solution in the downsizing of America is this:  Start your own business.

We hope you’ll follow our progress, at this blog, as we learn all we can about establishing a small business in the U.S. in the next year.

We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

And really, we just don’t believe we’ll  make less money in 2012.

TOMORROW:  Volunteer work while job-searching — good or bad?