In the decades spanning the Great Depression of the 1930s to the recession of today, anyone who lost a job at one company had a good chance of finding the same job with another. No more. The job bleed which began in December 2007 and continued with the loss of 650,000 jobs last month began a change so complete, I don’t think we know it’s here yet.
I recall a dreadful image of the Tsunami of 2004. A man sat alone on the beach as the waters pulled back to the horizon, then pushed quickly forward again. From the vantage point of the person with the video camera high on a hill, it was clear the man would not survive as this was no ordinary wave, the one you can dive through to avoid getting pummeled as the water makes it’s final reach to the shore. The wave of a tsunami is really no wave at all. It’s a wall of sand and rock and shell and debris. It’s solid as cement.
This solitary sole enjoying a contemplative Sunday morning on the beach had no idea from his position low on the sand that he would be killed within moments. He sat motionless and apparently comfortable until the very last minute when he attempted to get up and run. The foaming mess consumed him immediately and he was gone.
I make it sound like the recession is going to kill us, and I don’t mean to. But I think many people are going about this new reality in old ways; the Jobs Fairs, the resumes posted on online employment warehouses like monster.com. In Paramus, New Jersey last week, ten people applied for each minimum wage job opening at the new Target store, and that included fired business executives willing to work the floors in the housewares department. People are desperate, if conventional.
The jobless rate nationwide is 8.1 percent which doesn’t include the underemployed, like the aforementioned executive working the sales floor. And if you include the number of people who have simply given up looking for work, the rate spikes to 11.3 percent and is expected to climb all year.
I think of the people I know who lost a job in one industry and opened their eyes in another. A former WTVH-TV reporter became a flight attendant. Another took a job in pharmaceutical sales. When a nurse anesthetist friend of mine had a sudden hearing loss and could no longer hear the patient’s heartbeat, she got out of medicine and into hand-crafted jewelry for a fraction of the money and quadruple the satisfaction. Yet another friend with an MBA opened up a pastry shop and became the pastry chef, though she knew she was in trouble when, in September at the peek of the financial mess on Wall Street, her customers abruptly stopped buying cookies. My friend closed her pastry shop after Christmas and is now looking for the next thing in America, though she is French and her family would like her to return home where the economy is no better.
None of these people predicted they would go from Point A to Point B in the way they did and it wasn’t easy. Nothing about this economy is easy.
Like the man on the beach who couldn’t see the wave until it hit him hard, the American workforce is lacerated and bleeding. Jeff Bezos, CEO of amazon.com told Matt Lauer on the Today Show we will invent our way out of this recession with new “green” technology and renewable energy, and we’ll be stronger than ever. There is nothing in our history to suggest otherwise. Until that occurs, here’s to the brave who have already reinvented themselves.
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I have no doubt my former colleagues who are now pondering their next move will find tremendous strength and comfort in the skills they have acquired as journalists. Having made the switch to PR (partly because it became more and more difficult for me to do the journalism that I had set out to when I got into the biz), I can tell you that those in the tv news business are a resilient bunch — your ability to adapt to minute-by-minute changes and meet strict deadlines (folks outside of tv news have no idea what a real deadline is!), resourcefulness, skill at judiciously analyzing issues from different perspectives, and countless other talents will bode well for those of you who decide to tool around with other opportunities outside of tv news.
Reinventing yourself is something I know a little bit about. If you asked me 15, 10, or even 4 years ago, I probably wouldn’t have imagined life outside of tv news. While some people spend years trying to decide on an ideal profession, I was fortunate enough to find my passion early in life. My fascination with journalism came at a young age; I was not much older than thirteen when I first walked into TV 5 and the “news bug” bit me. It was one of those moments that would shape the course of my future. (I think I nearly passed out when Ron Curtis was walking towards me in the hallway and I swear that I turned beat red every time Mo was around. ) That kid with the big “Sally Jesse Raphael glasses” kept coming back for more – instead of going out with friends, I spent many Friday nights in high school hanging around the newsroom, where I nearly went blind from standing in the corner and logging the Newspath feeds.
Almost 17 years after getting bit by the “news bug,” I took on a new career challenge by transitioning into public relations. Leaving journalism, which had been my professional comfort zone, was a scary proposition; however, the career switch has opened up a world of opportunities. Whether you find yourself staying in the biz or venturing into uncharted territory, you will always carry the incredible memories as well as the lasting connections with colleagues and the community with you.
Cheers,
AA
Hi Anthony, You’re right! I should have included you in the list of “The Reinvented”. Thanks for sharing your story. Cheers back attcha, Maureen