Seattle magazine’s online archives don’t go back to 2005, but thanks to the magic of this blog I can share the contents with you here.

A little history on the article. This was rewritten six times, six different ways, in response to the editor’s prodding. She was looking for something edgy for her Seattle readers and I, finally, managed to deliver it.  The whole bit about “corporate America” still makes me shudder. But, hey, I got published in the magazine and I really wanted and needed to be right then.   Read on, and let me know what you think.

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Seattle Magazine

Laid Off But Not Alone

In Seattle’s lean economy, Suzi Beerman finds that experience can be a liability

By Suzi Beerman, March 2005

When I was laid off in late 2003 from my position as public relations manager at a north Seattle hospital, it hurt. It was humiliating and frustrating that my job, and my 24 years experience, seemed expendable. Layoffs had hit me twice before in my career, but this one was especially jolting. When I first joined the hospital in the mid ‘90s, it was an oasis of loyalty and longevity where dozens of employees proudly marked anniversaries of a decade or more. But times had changed—even a non-profit hospital had to put the bottom line ahead of loyalty to long-time employees—and many of those folks had received their own pink slips long before my layoff came.

I knew that the best remedy for the pain of being cast aside from one job was to find a great new job. The problem was I couldn’t find one. The Seattle economy was among the weakest in the nation with a staggering 7.2 percent unemployment rate. With few jobs available, employers were taking advantage of the economic slump to shrink salaries and benefits. It seemed a losing proposition to take a job that would be a professional and financial step backward. So I found freelance work to keep the cash flowing.

Then, in September 2004, layoff number two hit our family shifting our perspective again. After 22 years as a physician assistant, my husband, Gary, was laid off from his job at a southeast King County medical center. In less than a year we went from two incomes and a comfortable lifestyle to a freelance income and unemployment checks. At a time when we had expected to be monitoring our investments and planning for retirement, we were scrambling to pay the bills. At ages 45 and 51, our years of experience should have increased our value; instead we found ourselves wondering if we had grown obsolete. What was clearly obsolete was any expectation of working in a job as long as a decade.

We were savvy enough to know that corporate loyalty was a thing of the past, but we never expected to both be out of work at the same time. We thought a good education, strong work ethic, and decades of experience were safety nets. We were wrong.

And we soon discovered that we were also wrong in thinking we were alone in our predicament.

In a networking frenzy, I e-mailed friends and former colleagues and connected with online communities, looking for job leads and encouragement. I heard from a dozen other couples also both out of work. While we were thankful to hear from people surviving the double whammy that had hit us, many of the women who replied were writers and marketing people like me and they were having a heck of a time finding work. The thought of not finding a job after more than a year was horrifying to contemplate. I had responsibilities: a son to raise, a house to keep, bellies to fill, a retirement to fund.

Failure wasn’t an option, but Wonder Woman tights were in short supply. I couldn’t afford to make my livelihood from freelancing alone, but I was skittish about going back to full-time work knowing that even top performance couldn’t protect me from  being turned out on the cold, dark streets again in just a couple of years.

I wish I could say that we’ve recovered. I wish I had an in-your-face warning for corporate America—which seems to have embraced downsizing, consolidation and outsourcing over the value of rewarding good, hard work—not to screw around with its workers anymore. I’d like to be able to say a thankful prayer that we have entered an era where people enjoy their jobs (as much as possible) and in exchange for good, honest work they are free of worry about losing them tomorrow. But I’m no saint, and I’m no hero. I have a degree in English; 24 years experience in journalism, marketing, and public relations; am deadline driven and detail oriented; both a team player and a self-starter; and can start tomorrow. Call me.

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