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Firing back
With nearly one out of ten adults in the U.S. out of work, the word layoff is as ubiquitous as oil spill. Fortunately, the "L word" hasn't been a disaster for everyone. Here's how a few victims of four of the area's largest layoffs have adapted to their new realities.
EMPLOYEE TODD ARKENBERG
WAS VP of employee experience and investment at United Airlines
IS ,,stron Fiction writer
When the cost of fuel hit $147 a barrel during summer 2008, United Airlines began looking for ways to cut costs. In addition to more than 600 Chicago-area layoffs that June, United scaled back the roles of several executives, including 22-year veteran Arkenberg. Feeling he wouldn’t be able to do his job effectively in this new position, Arkenberg decided to leave the company.
“I had 15 jobs with United over the years,” Arkenberg says. “My mom was a United retiree before that, so my links to the company go pretty deep.”
Arkenberg used his departure—and his severance—to take a leap of faith toward a lifelong dream rather than immediately seek another job. “Being an English-lit major, I’ve always wanted to write fiction,” he says. “Writing offered a therapy of sorts, to sit down and get [my] thoughts together.”
But write what exactly? “People always say to write what you know, especially in the beginning,” says Arkenberg, who put in 12-hour days to churn out the first draft of his first novel— “a behind-the-scenes look at a fictional airline”—between October 2008 and December 2009. Currently enmeshed in the editing process, Arkenberg has been in touch with a literary agent and hopes to shop the book for publication soon—all while hard at work on book No. 2.
“That one deals with the jet-setting fantasies of a preadolescent growing up in the Chicago suburbs. It’s very autobiographical,” he says.
Arkenberg credits his long-time partner, Jim, with supporting his new career path. “We know we’re very fortunate,” he says, noting most of his out-of-work peers don’t have the luxury of taking such a risk. “I’ve always looked at my life as one of no regrets. If the right job came up, I’d probably look into it, but I really want to dedicate this time to writing.” —AB
EMPLOYEE JULIE KIM
WAS Loan closer at LaSalle Bank
IS Loan closer at Harris Bank
“I knew it was coming,” says Kim of her erstwhile LaSalle Bank job, which she held for nearly 12 years. “I saw a lot of people get laid off before me.” Kim found out it was her turn to dance the pink-slip two-step in July 2008, three months before LaSalle’s merger with Bank of America, due to redundant positions between the two banks. After working for B of A for three months, she officially lost her job.
While Bank of America multiplied its Chicago-based branches by seven times in 2008, more than 2,500 Illinois B of A employees got the ax. After the LaSalle merger, the Charlotte, North Carolina–based company announced plans to cut an additional 30,000 to 35,000 employees nationwide over the next three years.
“I applied at every single bank out there,” recounts Kim of West Rogers Park. “I went to 20 job fairs. I went to headhunters and temp agencies. I tried at Costco, Sam’s, Jewel. I even tried for a janitorial position and nobody would hire me.”
Her efforts were rewarded in May 2009. Ten months after starting the job hunt, Kim was offered a position at Harris Bank that’s almost identical to her old job. She’s still hitting up online job boards—although now it’s in hopes of helping her fellow Bank of America casualties find work.
“I’ve been extremely lucky. I didn’t lose my house or my car. My new job is more stressful and I’m making less than I was, but I’m grateful to have my insurance,” she says.
“A lot of my old coworkers still haven’t found jobs, so I’m trying to help them out as best I can. I feel guilty having a job.” —CC
EMPLOYEE NIALL MCSHANE
WAS Motorola director of engineering
IS Tech consultant
After axing 3,500 employees—about five percent of its workforce—in 2007, the Schaumburg-based cell-phone giant laid off 3,000 more in 2008 and 4,000 in 2009. McShane made it to the last round of cuts. A director of engineering with Motorola for 20 years, the Arlington Heights resident was one of the few who welcomed the change.
“I actually volunteered to put my name on the list of layoffs,” McShane says. “I wanted to do something different, so I saw it as a chance to get a severance package and spend some time finding a new career.”
McShane decided he wanted to move out of engineering and into smart-grid technologies, an industry that focuses on environmentally conscious supply and delivery of electricity, even though he had no experience in the field. Using Motorola’s outplacement services, he landed a part-time consulting position for a Chicago-based technology firm seven months after losing his job.
“I took the contract work because I’m holding out for an opening in smart grids,” he says. “I’m lucky because even at four days a week, the consulting gig is coming close to what my salary at Motorola would have been.”
Meanwhile, McShane is trying to break into the smart-grid social community. Since getting laid off, he’s launched a blog focusing on the industry and started up the Green Technology Organization of Greater Chicago, a conglomeration of professionals in the smart-grid field.
“The layoff is what gave me the time to take a step back and come up with a strategy for where I wanted to be,” he says. “Now, I’m establishing myself as an expert in a new field—or at least someone with opinions that people are interested in reading about.” —CC
EMPLOYEE MICHELLE GOLDBERG
WAS Marketing manager at the CTA
IS Marketing manager at a consumer-products company
For a while, it looked as if the CTA might sidestep its “doomsday” budget cuts. But on February 7 of this year, about 1,057 bus and El operators lost their jobs, along with an undisclosed number of at-will, or nonunion, employees. Goldberg, who worked as the CTA’s general manager of marketing and advertising for nearly 18 months, was among the latter.
“There were layoffs going on from the minute I started working there, and there were multiple rounds before my turn came,” says Goldberg, an Uptown resident. “I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did.”
Unlike the vast majority of laid-off transportation officers who are still searching for work six months later, Goldberg was offered a full-time position with a large consumer-products company a mere ten weeks after losing her job. She chalks up the smooth transition to industry contacts and geographic flexibility. “I had a lot more options because I did not focus my job search solely in Chicago,” she explains. “Looking for jobs outside of Chicago gave me an advantage.”
After hitting up interviews in Michigan, Ohio, St. Louis and Las Vegas, as well as a number of out-of-town phone interviews through Skype, Goldberg was offered a position similar to her work at the CTA right here in her hometown. “This was a blessing in disguise because I don’t think I would have gotten my current opportunity had I not been let go by the CTA,” she says. “I landed at a solid organization with incredibly smart and wonderful people, and they treat their employees with the utmost respect. My life is absolutely fantastic.” —CC
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