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Thousands of Layoffs at the
Worst Time of the Year
(The Unkindest Cut)
“It’s hard for the 11- and 6-year-old. I mean, they still believe in Santa Claus, and they don't understand the concept of having no money.”— Danette Goree
Company Layoffs
An estimated 60,000 Americans have lost their jobs during this holiday season, victims of company restructuring and cost-cutting. This week alone, 36,000 employees received pink slips.
Dec. 4 —It took two years for Tim Goree to land a job with Boeing, but only three weeks to lose it. On his first day of work last September, Goree attended an orientation meeting where he was told his job as an assembler mechanic was secure through the year 2000. Two weeks later, he pocketed his first paycheck. One week later, he was handed a “warn notice”— the precursor to a pink slip.
Goree had been swept up in the first wave of victims in Boeing’s just-announced blockbuster payroll cut. This week, some 20,000 people have been told their jobs with the aerospace manufacturer are at an end, in addition to the 28,000 cuts already announced this summer.
The flood of U.S. companies that have announced major job cuts this holiday season — 36,000 layoffs this week alone — has caught thousands of people by surprise and cast a grim shadow over what is, for many, the happiest time of year.
Boeing’s layoffs are an especially cruel blow for Goree, a father of four. He quit a managerial job at a company where he had worked for three years to take a job that promised his family a bright, secure future.
“It was a big decision, to quit and go to Boeing,” remembers Goree’s wife, Danette. “We decided to do it because of the opportunities for advancement, with all the benefits and everything. We thought it would be an excellent opportunity for our family.”
Today, Goree reported to his job at Boeing for the last time.
Economy Continues to Soar
Even as Goree punches his last time card, the ink is still drying on Labor Department’s newest batch of glowing economic numbers.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent in November, down from 4.6 in October, and the economy produced new jobs at a remarkably fast pace, indicating a robust job market despite the negative effect the Asian crisis has had on the manufacturing sector. Non-farm sector payrolls are up 267,000.
“The U.S. economy is on a stable growth path and will also be reasonably strong next year,” Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs Robert J. Shapiro beamed Wednesday.
October also brought the 14th straight month of increases in sales of new single-family homes, a record blockbuster streak lit by low mortgage rates and rebounding stock prices.
And consumer confidence is back up at the record high it hit three months ago, according to an ABCNEWS/Money magazine poll. This year, more consumers than ever, 56 percent, are confidently buying holiday presents. Two-thirds of Americans say their personal finances are in good condition.
The Gorees are not among them.
A Chance at a Nest Egg, Lost “We have nothing, basically,” says Danette.
In the 60 days between receiving his “warn notice” and his final pink slip, Tim and Danette didn’t do much Christmas shopping for their four children, fearing the worst.
When the worst happened, “I was totally in shock,” says Danette. “There were a lot of tears, I just couldn’t believe it.”
Before they got the bad news, the family had been living paycheck to paycheck. But they thought things were about to change. Tim’s new job at Boeing represented a chance to “get a little nest egg, to have things, to get a savings account,” says Danette, an office assistant with the state of Washington.
Her job is an excellent one, she says, but her wages “aren’t enough at all to take care of what we need to take care of.”
In the Seattle area, where the Gorees live, Boeing looms large in people’s minds. For two years, Tim tried to get hired with the company, taking a six-week training course on his own time, and undergoing company assessments. Danette says she had heard about the company’s hiring-firing cycles for years, but “until it affects you, you never think about it.”
‘Too Young To Understand’
In these heady last days before Christmas, adults are battling each other for Furbies and children are clambering on the laps of shopping mall Santas to whisper their wish list. The Gorees are struggling with how to prepare their children, aged 6 to 15, for the lean times ahead.
“The timing couldn’t have been any worse,” says Tim quietly. “I got four kids and I’m trying to support them, trying to make a halfway decent Christmas. The two younger ones, they kind of know, but they’re too young to understand.”
It will be hardest on their younger children, Danette agrees. “I mean, they believe in Santa Claus, and they don’t understand the concept of having no money.”
Boeing hasn’t offered a severance package, the Gorees say, just some career transition guidance.
Everything slows down around the holidays, Danette says. “My husband is probably not going to be able to go out and get a job.”
A New Reality Sinks In
At Seattle’s Food LifeLine, the annual Boeing employee food drive is under way. At this time of year, trucks of non-perishable goods arrive almost daily. In an ironic twist, laid off Boeing workers could soon be benefiting from the generosity of their former co-workers.
Marketing director Victoria Watson says the food bank is aware of the company layoffs, but no extraordinary measures are being taken to prepare for a possible increase in needy families.
“We’ll continue doing what we do,” she says, “even if [people need us] for a short period of time, while they’re looking for a job, because their income has to pay for rent rather than food.”
There is a brief silence after Danette is asked if she will turn to community resources, like a foodbank, to ease her family through the rough spots. “I don’t know. I’ve never had to use those.”
As for Tim, his opinion of Boeing is remarkably ambivalent. Asked if he judges the company harshly for putting people out of work three weeks before Christmas, he replies simply, “Well, it’s kind of an impersonal company.”
And then, unprompted, he adds, “Personally, I would go back if they called me back to work. If they called me back, I would go.”
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