This is an article that was in The Salt Lake Tribune Sunday, April 19, 2009. I contacted Mike via email a few months ago when he posted a request for stories from people who’ve been laid off. A few months later Mike emailed me to follow up and let me know he was still working on the article. A photographer came to my house. He took a few pictures of me “job searching”…there wasn’t much to it. I’ve posted the article that Mike wrote. Unfortunately all the facts pertaining to me are true.

Emotions high? » Employees, companies struggle to find ways to ease the strain.

By Mike Gorrell
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated:04/18/2009

With new layoffs announced somewhere almost daily, anxiety is common in many workplaces.
“Yes, it’s on people’s minds. It’s a very difficult to place to be in, waiting for the shoe to drop,” said BrandE Faupell, human resources director at Utah State University, which has used furloughs, early retirements and a voluntary separation program to cut costs.
But it won’t be enough. Broader layoffs loom. The university probably will act next month on a plan being assembled by a budget-reduction committee.

“There are people who are very, very concerned and it’s consuming them. There’s hand wringing, fear. Those are very natural reactions to these economic times,” Faupell said. “It’s tough, even for people who are mentally preparing themselves for this. Even people like that, with the best attitude possible, are worried. You hear it when you go to lunch, when you go to meetings, at church. You hear it everywhere.”
Because nobody wants to end up like Scott Klimt — out of work through no fault of his own, unable to find a decent job because it seems to some that nobody is hiring.

The Millcreek man lost his marketing job in December, just as he got engaged and just months from finishing his MBA. A go-getter, he’s spent the months since “looking online and in person at career fairs. I’ve set up so many online accounts for jobs that I can’t even count them.
“I’ve been bored out of my mind. I spend one to two hours a day at the gym, a few hours studying, some time doing housework or repairs and the rest of my time looking for jobs,” he added, joking sarcastically he might try writing a book. “Call it No Job, Less Fat . It will basically be a book about how to get laid off and lose weight. Stress, depression, anxiety and diet just might be my new way to make millions.”

The emotions evoked by Klimt are being expressed in counseling offices everywhere, said Jim Stringham, a social worker with a doctorate in psychology and the co-author of The Unemployment Survival Guide .

“During tough economic times, mental health practices get really busy. All of the colleagues I know are so booked that there are waiting lists,” he said. “Whether you have a job or not, when there are tough times, it brings up the vulnerability of what are you going to do if you are out of work.”

Many baby boomers fear they could end up like Wendell Jorgensen of West Valley City.
He had 18 years on the job with his company, Michigan-based RGIS Inventory Specialists, counting everything on the shelves at Wal-Marts across the West. Then, boom, at age 58, he was let go, forced into an online world of job-seeking that did not exist the last time he looked for work.
“You have to send résumés over e-mail, and they never tell you whether you’re over- or underqualified,” Jorgensen lamented, adding that the situation has taken a toll on his psyche. “You hope company loyalty pays off. I don’t think it pays off anymore.

Several Tribune readers who responded to requests for information about their job perspectives described how office relationships got weird when employees knew layoffs were imminent, even when co-workers were not competing to avoid getting the ax.

Noted one respondent, who declined to be identified for fear of jeopardizing a severance package: “You get really tired of being a ghost. People who are leaving the company … become invisible, unimportant and really transparent, and not in a good way. Sometimes peers with whom you’ve had a good working relationship suddenly become incredibly mean or short with you, just because you are not part of the go-forward organization. I’ve seen people act like vultures waiting for someone who was laid off to leave so they could take their desk supplies. It’s sad.”
Before she lost her job with a health care recruiting company, 25-year-old Sugar House resident Heather Anderson said “I tried to avoid talking to the boss as much as possible because I didn’t want it to lead to a conversation I didn’t want to have.”

For John Beverleigh, the stress of watching his income slip away built steadily as the 54-year-old warehouse manager’s hours were trimmed over a four-month period, culminating with a pink slip in December. “I worked less and less. Two days a week, then one, and then no days a week. The boss told us to hang on, we’ve got some work coming. But it never came. They just closed the doors and went out of business.”

Although the depressing times facing the auto industry forced airbag manufacturer Autoliv to lay off about 250 Utah workers in mid-February, spokeswoman Kathy Whitehead said the company has tried to minimize the emotional repercussions for the remaining work force.

“Layoffs are stressful for the people left behind,” she said of Autoliv’s 3,000 employees in northern Utah. “We work together in much smaller teams, like family. We all feel it when we reduce the work force.”

As auto industry struggles continue, Autoliv is seeking worker input on ways to improve efficiency and is making efforts to keep employees informed about the reality of the job situation”

“To maintain a consistent approach, even in the face of uncertainty, allows our employees to trust us. They know we’re committed to making sound decisions for Autoliv’s long-term operations. Decisions are not knee-jerk reactions,” Whitehead said.

At the same time, she added, “it’s important that we acknowledge the anxiety. We’re striving to replace anxiety with optimism. We believe we’re taking appropriate measures to weather the storm — and we’re communicating that to our employees.”

mikeg@sltrib.com