Layoffs, recession show ‘we’re living in a new world’

Dan Witter was confident a Bachelor’s degree would help him pursue a career.

Dan Witter

A survivor of layoffs and a recession that has crushed career hopes, the 43-year-old from Bellingham, WA, says his experiences have taught him an unsettling lesson: “I’m not convinced things will go back to the way they used to be.”

That means the days when a solid resume, good references and a B.A. meant something better than minimum wage.

Witter, working two jobs for more than 45 hours a week, just filed his taxes and concludes, “I didn’t clear $16,000.”

He says this with some amazement, as if he still can’t believe he’s back to retail after two years of unemployment, following a layoff.

“I’m disappointed that things aren’t working out the way they should,” he says. “I realize I’m living in a different world. It’s so sad to see this happen to our country.”

Witter says it’s not enough to be committed to a job, and work hard to get ahead.

“I work hard, I take pride in my work, I’m a detail-oriented person,” he says. “That doesn’t mean anything anymore. Everyone puts that on their resume.”

After applying for 300 jobs in the past two years, Witter was relieved to get a part-time job as custodian at his church, first at five hours weekly, then 10.  That was followed by a full-time job as produce assistant in a new department at Target.

“At least I have medical,” he says. “Between two jobs, I can’t afford $700-a-month rent. I pay room and board to my parents, but I have this guilt trip — I’m supposed to be out on my own. I’m supposed to be supporting myself. I should be independent, yet here I am.”

He’s quiet for a moment and adds, “There are so many people worse off than me, who have lost everything.”

Witter joined the Occupy protests in Bellingham, and removed his savings from the Bank of America to protest the bank’s role in the recession.

“We hear about all these bailouts of Wall Street … so I stood outside the Bank of America (in Bellingham), to say, ‘you got bailouts and I lost my job’,” he recalls.

“A lot of the time I was out of work, I was angry. I just didn’t show it. I was really, really angry — I had nowhere to put the blame.”

When Witter was unemployed and lost his health insurance, he got injured and was advised to get surgery at a cost of almost $20,000.

“I was livid,” he says. “I was scared.  “That would have wiped out all my savings.”

Witter sought opinions from two more doctors, who advised against surgery, so he still tries to add to his savings.

“There are so few making so much money in our country, and so many suffering,” he continues.

“It leaves you with a sense of helplessness. I don’t feel like I have a whole lot of power. There’s a certain acceptance of things — but I’m not giving up.”

Witter is writing a book about his church, Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, as a way of channeling his writing skills.

“Writing gives me a sense of contentment,” he explains. “This a real, printed book — I can’t wait to get it in my hands.”

Witter leaves with a Mark Twain quotation he finds inspiring: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Second of two parts

Long-term unemployment ‘changed my whole worldview’

Dan Witter has the kind of passion that spurred him to take 2,000 photos of a construction project and produce a self-published book.

The project was an addition to his church, Bellingham Unitarian, in Washington state.

Dan Witter

Witter, a former journalist, wanted to capture history for the congregation of 300, so embarked on what he calls “my honeymoon book.”

The title, Building A New Hope, could be a sub-title for Witter’s own life.

At 43, Witter says he didn’t imagine he would be living with his parents again, after long-term unemployment.

Witter got a BA in journalism, worked as a reporter in California for almost eight years, then returned to Washington “burnt out” in 2007.

“I moved back with my parents, figuring I would stay a month or two, and find work,” he recalls.

When the job search took longer than expected, he got a retail job at Target and continued searching.

By fall, 2008, he landed a job that paid twice as much as retail, at Cargill Animal Nutrition, a feed mill near Anacortes, Washington. Witter became a production technician, stocking and sealing animal feed in bags on a production line.

“I asked myself, ‘Do you really want to get into this? Are you sure you want to do this?’ ” he says. “It was the worst job I ever had.”

Long hours, difficult working conditions and a tough work culture finally led to a layoff, and Witter acknowledges, “I was the wrong match for the job.”

Witter began another full-time job search, confident it wouldn’t take long.

“At first, I was happy because I knew that wasn’t the right job for me,” he says. “But it was getting tougher. Days turned into weeks turned into months — I told myself, ‘I won’t go six months’ (before finding work), but then a year goes by.

“I was sending out resumes and applications all the time and I was getting only rejection letters, most of the time, no response. It was like these resumes and applications were just going into a void, some black hole.”

Employers complained they were getting 200 to 300 applications for a single position, and soon, Witter started hearing about other recession victims.

“I knew other people were losing jobs and they were worse off than me because they were losing their homes — at least I had a place to stay,” he says.

As the recession deepened, so did Witter’s depression.

“I was getting depressed because I just knew it wasn’t getting better. It changed my whole worldview,” Witter says. “I didn’t know if I would ever find a job again. It just seemed so impossible and so time-consuming, so frustrating. I knew, at the back of my mind, it was useless.”

Witter said he applied faithfully for jobs while collecting unemployment insurance, starting with media-related positions, then government jobs, then back to retail.

“I did what I was supposed to do,” applying regularly for jobs while getting UI, he says. “I didn’t lie. I would apply to Costco nine times and never get a response.”

Considering Target his default, Witter finally re-applied and learned there were no positions. At least that employer offered something few bothered — a response to his application.

College degree ‘just a useless piece of paper’

After applying for 300 jobs, Witter says he investigated education options that might help.

“I couldn’t see what would lead to work in this economy,” he says. “It seemed a college degree was just a useless piece of paper.”

Witter’s church offered him a custodial job at five hours a week, then 10 hours, helping lift his confidence.

When construction began on an addition for the church, Witter says he just started shooting pictures of the work, becoming engrossed in the process.

“It was a labor of love,” Witter says, explaining that it was a volunteer project he undertook to show appreciation to the congregation.

“It was a pivotal moment,” he concludes. “It was a great accomplishment — I didn’t know I could do a book.”

Witter sold copies to church members at print-on-demand cost, estimating he earned about $40.

That seemingly minor success was followed by a phone call from Target.  The retail giant was opening new produce departments, and offered Witter a full-time job, based on his previous excellent performance.

“I finally got a job,” Witter says. “I was just elated.”

TOMORROW:  Post-recession worldview

 

 

A biology degree gets you all the way to … the frozen yogurt store

By Hoover Wind

Ask Laura DeWitt what she wants, at 26, and she says, “A job.”

She graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor’s degree in biology.

Like many in her generation, that got her as far as the fast-food counter.

“For over three and a half years, I was working at a frozen yogurt store,” she says.

“For three and a half years, I would look at a schedule and have no idea if I would get the hours listed.  In the summer, it was likely that I would get more, or at least close to what I was scheduled. In the winter, however, I might go a week or more without working, due to the weather.”

She had a second job, as a “breakfast bar attendant” at a hotel.

“I quit that job when I decided to take additional courses to prepare me for graduate school — to which I still have not been accepted,” she explains.

In October, the yogurt store closed, leaving Laura and 10 other employees jobless.

“We had almost no warning,” she recalls. “As I was the manager at the time, I was not only responsible for telling everyone that we were closing and that they were losing their jobs/favorite dessert spot, but I also had to help tear the store apart for the owner.

“This left me no time to job hunt.  So I became unemployed.”

Laura is seeking laboratory or related work in the Raleigh area of North Carolina.

“I finally had an interview this week, which I believe went well — once I convinced them that no, I did not intend to commute three hours daily” from her home, in Boone.  Laura is happy to relocate.

It’s telling that she offers this, without being asked: “I am trying to remain optimistic.”

What’s your dream job?  I’d really love to do genetics research.  Preferably with bats, big cats, or honeybees as my subjects.  Right now, I’m looking for any kind of entry-level lab work, just to get my foot in the door.

What type of job are you seeking now?

At this point in my life, the most important thing in working is paying the bills, while not feeling horrible in my job.
Currently I’m seeking full time, but I’ll really take anything I can get.

What should employers know about you?

I am an extremely hard worker and always show up early.  I work best alone, but am also great at working with other people.  I can take orders as well as give them.  I am good at math.  I can figure most things out for myself (mechanical, technical, etc.), but am not afraid to ask for help when needed.  Basically, I’m awesome.

I have experience in management, in addition to my degree in Biology, which I wouldn’t think that many people have.

Your views on historic unemployment in the U.S.?

Unemployment in the U.S. is far too high for a nation with our international standing.  Many if not most of the positions I have applied for have been at least partially federally funded, and I feel that if the government was taxing the top 1% at similar rates to what they have in the past, more people like me could be hired.

I hate that in this country we’re told that there’s nothing more important than a college degree, only to find out after spending thousands of dollars on it, that a Bachelor’s degree isn’t worth that much anymore.

It seems in my job hunt that employers want either an associate’s degree with no experience or a Bachelor’s degree plus two years of experience (or a Master’s degree).  So it seemed for most things I was either over- or under-qualified for, which is very frustrating since I’ll take almost anything at this point.

Hoover Wind on working retail, getting film degree, working at non-profit

I was laid off in ’08 from a retail store where I know my work suffered from my anxiety of having just graduated with a degree in film without any connections to that industry.

As much as I loathe the retail system (it’s wrong to mistreat and belittle people simply because they’re serving you), I don’t blame Wall St., Obama, the banks, etc. for my unemployment.

I was messed up, and trying to get myself together, after graduating, and the end of a toxic relationship.

I try to be a moderate, but after two years of collecting unemployment while I tried to stay afloat, I have to say thanks to the state.

And thanks to all my friends, who were helping me, because they’re taxpayers too — as they were all too eager to remind me.

The job search was muddled, clumsy and never all that comfortable.

Sometimes, I would wear a shirt and tie, and show up for interviews that were nothing more than promotional seminars that took two-hour intervals out of my life.

Other times, I would go to some business student’s start-up; get a vague description of the job, and a vague description of why I’d be suitable.  They wouldn’t seriously consider me for the job, but everyone was polite enough to through the motions.

After awhile, I realized I was not only resting on my laurels (which were nowhere near strong enough for leaning), but I was trying to find suitable work in an area in which I had no interest or skills.

I knew I could write.

I knew I could write, direct, and act, but my skills seemed so anemic, I never bothered to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

I finally took an internship at a film production company in Philadelphia.  I learned various skills about being assertive and polite with people on the phone, networking, data entry, promotions, merchandise distribution, and DVD copying.

It was character building, and I got to live in an actual city.  (I live near Atlanta, Georgia.)

However, I was painfully lonely, never felt connected to anything, and acquired the general malaise of my old paying job.

I currently freelance for my family’s non-profit, no one hungry, and I do things I could never do in retail or as an intern.

I collect food from the market; take it to our house for sorting; then deliver it to churches, food banks and food co-ops, for women, children and families in transition.

I’m proud that we move a ton of food a week.  I’m the only paid worker (part-time), among a dozen volunteers.

I work as many hours as I want, but I also try to work as many hours as I can, because it never feels like an assignment or a mandate.  It’s just something I should be doing anyway.

Sometimes, I have to make small talk with people, and sometimes I have to play a Honda Civic-sized game of Tetris by figuring out how to get x amount of food in my car.

But it’s always rewarding, because I believe in the cause for which I’m working.  I mostly interact with my family and friends, and I always feel pride in what I do.

My real goal is to be paid to be funny in any capacity and in any medium.

In the meantime, I’m hoping to work full-time at no one hungry or for a company of equal purpose, friendliness and organization.