NEW YORK – When the telecommunications startup firm Tom Gaffuri worked for went belly up in the last recession, he found himself without a job in his mid-50s.
Gaffuri, 57, said he spent about a year looking for work, answering ads and tapping into his network of business associates, but without success.
“As you get older, you find that your network has gone on to do other things outside of your core industry, or your network is barely hanging on to their own jobs, or your network is unemployed just like you,” Gaffuri said. “It’s difficult.”
In a nation where people define themselves by what they do, losing a job can be devastating to both a worker’s ego and finances. That’s especially true for people in their 50s, the age when they should be reaching peak incomes and putting aside peak retirement savings.
The loss of a job can turn their family’s finances upside down. Getting a new position generally takes longer for men and women who are 50 or older than for other age groups, and they often must take a pay cut to get new jobs.
For Gaffuri, of Fairfax, Va., the economic blow was cushioned because his wife, Marianne, continued in her sales job. Still, they’ve had to make “brutally honest assessments” of their financial situation, cutting back on things like eating out and vacations.
“We also understand that the timeline for achieving our objective – that is, you don’t have to work but you still want to work – has extended,” he said. “Every day I don’t have income, it extends another day.”
For the last year, he’s been building his own management consulting firm, a project requiring “an incredible amount of sweat equity,” he said.
Karen Hochman, head of the national Marketing Executives Networking Group, said some older workers who are laid off or fired can get very depressed or even suicidal, fearing they’ll never recover from the job loss.
“Baby boomers expected to be working until age 65,” she said. “No one said, ‘At the age of 50, you’re too old to seek employment and you’re going to be roaring through your retirement savings.”
Others, she said, are so used to functioning within a corporate environment that they can’t see their way clear to “reinvent” themselves, say by buying a franchise or setting up a small business.
There are also workers who find they need new skills.
Marion Elizabeth Mein, 54, of New York, handled the legal operations for a physicians group before she lost her job a year ago. A single woman, she’s had to take in a roommate to help cover the rent and other bills while she hunts for new work – or possibly a new career.
Unable to find a similar position, Mein is now thinking she should go back to school to get into a different field, perhaps in teaching or medical technology. But that has drawbacks. “Going back to school is a very expensive proposition,” she said. “And I’m already worried I’ll never recoup the losses from losing this job.”
For Dick Andersen, 55, of Littleton, Mass., unemployment began in February 2002 when his company, which manufactured chips and network software, was sold and he was let go. He was out of work for 20 months.
Andersen said he structured his days as if he still had a job, getting up and checking Web sites and sending out resumes and keeping in touch with executives he knew. “I also focused myself on other things so I wouldn’t lose my edge,” he said. “I became even more active in the Rotary. I helped interview candidates for local police officer positions. I had been a soccer referee as hobby, so I upped the number of games I handled.”
In December, Andersen landed a job as vice president of marketing at HighStreet Networks, which makes software products. The starting salary, about a third of what he had earned before, has since risen to about half his previous compensation, but he also has an equity position in the firm.
“It’s a small company with a good product, and I feel comfortable with the other key players,” he said.
Associated Press
Dick Andersen, 55, of Littleton, Mass., landed a job as vice president of marketing for HighStreet Networks after 20 months of unemployment.
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