Ex-executive "Almost Homeless"

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

I ran across this article the other day.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Paul Nawrocki says he's beyond the point where he cares about humiliation.
Paul Nawracki, jobless since February, stands on New York corners with a sign announcing his job search.

That's why he weekly takes a 90-minute train ride to New York, where he walks the streets wearing a sandwich board that advertises his plight: The former toy-industry executive needs a job.

"Almost homeless," reads the sign. "Looking for employment. Very experienced operations and administration manager."

Wearing a suit and tie under the sign, Nawrocki -- who was in the toy industry 36 years before being laid off in February -- stands on Manhattan corners for hours, hoping to pass resumes to interested passers-by.

More at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/05/unemployed.sign/index.html

The guy legitimately does have problems: a very, very sick wife, his daughter's student loans, his savings are rapidly dwindling, and he can't find work. But I don't know exactly how I feel about his methods. I think part of it stems from the fact that when most people see a homeless person engaging in the similar tactic, they generally respond with disgust or avoidance; however, when a well-dressed man wears a sandwich board to self-advertise, interest and sympathy are generated.

I don't know. Any thoughts?

[Idealism]

1. After 36 years in one business

He has planned horribly for his future if he's almost homeless. Taken on too many payments, living the good life too long. Just another measure of discal irresponsibility, this time there won't be a bailout.

[Warpy]

6. Shame on him for having all those birthdays!

He passed his corporate expiration date of 55 and now he's looking at working at Wally's if he can get it, restocking the freezers or the plumbing department.

It's all his fault. If he'd chosen to die last year, his family would have his life insurance and he'd have died employed.

[justaregularperson]

25. The lesson here? Corp execs should not have fought against "social safety nets".

Empathy is appropriate, but this is not a humble act. Seems to me the kind that once they are back on their feet he will forget all about the other millions who are in the same plight.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Huh? How do you know he had "too many payments"? How do you know he

wasted money on "the good life"? How do you know that he "planned horribly"?

The man sounds like a loyal worker who got laid off because he had built up too much seniority. I would be more inclined to think that it was a situation where they lay off the most loyal, oldest, hardest-working and thus highest paid workers first--whether administrative or blue collar. I know this scene. It happened to me--and it was solely a financial decision. Because I had worked hard, and stayed with one business, I was one of the highest paid employees. They fired me, not because I didn't do my job, but because the bank loan they wanted stipulated firing the highest paid workers. In my case, it wasn't an exec/admin job, but the principle is the same. Punish loyalty! Cut corners. Profit is God. Maybe he was the honest guy--the one running the company well, for everyone's sake. Now the sharks are taking over. Maybe they looted his pension fund. And what happened to his medical insurance? We don't know. I don't know. You don't know. There is not enough detail to know what was the company's fault, and what was his, if any.

Why are you so rough on him? Is it right to sneer at someone who is desperate? Even if it IS partly his fault--or all his fault, for that matter--which I don't think is true--why take this snarling, Calvinist minister attitude toward someone who is suffering, who cares for his family and can't meet his obligations? What would you do--throw your latte in the face of the next bum who says, "Buddy, can you spare a dime?" That's what you sound like. In a Depression, this is what happens. The sharks--like the golden parachute thieves in the banking and finance industry, in our present situation--give people high expectations, get people into debt and then they're outa here, off to Tahita with the bailout money. This situation is not his fault. Or maybe a little bit his fault, if he voted for the Bushwhacks.

Have some compassion, friend. And don't be so quick to judge people. There are going to be a lot of people in this situation, barely hanging on, so desperate they go out onto the street every day in a sandwich board, begging for a job. The man WANTS TO WORK. Get it? Why don't you credit him with that gumption, instead of presuming that it's all his fault, and dissing him for his effort?

[Idealism]

16. You don't understand board rooms much do you

CEOs don't get ousted by their directors much, even when they run the company into the ground they still get a severance package. This man must've not planned too well if he is that close to being homeless after making millions running a toy conglamorate.

[Missy Vixen]

24. PP, thank you so much

To read this site lately, one would think they'd gotten off at the wrong bus stop. After all, there are so many willing to direct others via their own unrelentingly perfect circumstances and life decisions. God knows I've made a zillion mistakes. I'm sure I'll make at least a few more.

I give the guy snaps for courage. He's trying to change his circumstance. Nobody here has any idea of the amount of his former compensation, whether or not the family's attempting to unload a house, etcetera. Also, I'd hazard a guess that there are few here who know the cost of caring for a disabled spouse, both financial and emotional.

Julie

[Tutonic]

14. Can I get one of those rocks from you to throw at him? Stop and

think! We already have an idiot in the White House that is busy blaming everyone for his failures.

[RC]

18. You missed the part about having a very sick wife. He should have

dumped her like a good republican, correct? :sarcasm:

So many on this so called progressive board are so quick to condemn, are lacking in empathy, unable to visualize the concept of walking in another persons moccasins.

Not all that life gives us is deserved.

[undeterred]

2. I would tell him to sell his suit on Craigslist

and get in line at the food pantry. Or stop exaggerating his situation by saying "almost homeless". It mocks the people who really are.

[Peace Patriot]

9. Well, your comment is rather like Halo Experiment's--to dis the guy for trying

to PREVENT the homelessness of his family, including his sick wife and a child who is still a student.

I don't know much about this situation, but I am fairly sure that he has no intention of "mocking" the homeless. He's scared. He seems homelessness looming. He is desperate for a job. He most likely got fired very unfairly. How do you know that he is "exaggerating his situation"? You don't know. He may well end up selling his suit on Craigslist and getting in line at the food pantry. And what would you say to him them? Get a job!

This is Democratic Underground. The tradition on the left (the majority) of the Democratic Party is to bring sympathy and creative thinking to the human suffering caused by the "Robber Barons" and the loan sharks and the global corporate predators. We shouldn't be sneering at suffering and dislocation. We should be working hard to restore democracy and fairness.

[undeterred]

12. Thanks for the lecture.

You don't know anything more about this person than I do- we just projected different things. And while the majority of people at DU show indifference or hostility toward the actual poor and homeless, we're all supposed to cheer for someone who borrows the word homeless and wears a suit.

Forgive me if I have a lot more sympathy for the people who are already there and don't advertise it on a billboard, as if their plight is more important than everybody elses. It isn't. And if someone had a corporate job for all those years he probably has a lot more resources he just doesn't want to sacrifice than the rest of us do.

[bobbolink]

19. .

:hug:

[Chicago1]

3. I said a prayer for him

That he finds work and his situation stabilizes. This is a horrible thing that he and his family are going through.


PROSECUTE BUSH AND CHENEY!!!

[yurbud]

4. if he has a masters, he can teach community college while he looks for his next high paying gig

[pop goes the weasel]

15. don't be ridiculous

He'd be adjunct faculty, one of the most exploited, underpayed segments of the education industry. You do not make house payments on adjunct contract; you are lucky to make rent. You do not have health care. You do not have security. You don't pay your loans. There are thrift stores, broken down cars, food pantries, and accepting any castoff items that come your way. Speaking from experience, it's a bad idea. Only people who are comfortably retired and looking for a hobby should bother considering it.

[yurbud]

22. I'm an adjunct. The upside is, you can get the jobs easily and it pays more than McDonalds

[pop goes the weasel]

23. and the downside includes being trapped a semester

And get paid maybe $2000/mo if you teach the maximum number of credit hours and have teaching experience. If you have a good car, and no one in your family needs you, you can also maybe get a class or two in the next town over. If you get so lucky as to have enough classes to survive on, you will be too busy to cultivate better economic opportunities. It's called adjunct hell for a good reason.

I hope this guy can find employment that will allow him to care for his wife. And I hope the new Congress will address the student loan problem.

[Demobrat]

5. People in his position have been known to

empty out the accounts and run away, kill their families and themselves, resort to crime and who knows what all. He's doing what he feels he has to in order to take care of business and his family. His method may not be what you or I would choose, but we're not him. He's doing what he knows. I think to assume that it's somehow his fault or the result of poor choices (not that you did, someone else did though) is just a defense against the fear that it could happen to anybody.

[varelse]

7. He's not looking for sympathy, he's looking for a JOB.

he's looking for a job, and being somewhat more high profile and creative in the search than many other "downsized" execs. I see no sign that he's asking for your sympathy, or mine for that matter. Incidentally, more bankruptcies are the result of medical problems than from any other cause - his wife's illness, and his daughter's student loans are far more likely to have put his family in this stark position than irresponsible spending or extravagant living.

He's part of the worker class, albeit at the middle management level (after god knows how many years of working his way up the ladder), not the investor class. The ire and disdain expressed for this family by my fellow DU members is misdirected, imo.

[Peace Patriot]

11. Hear, hear! Love your comment! I was beginning to that that there weren't any

Democrats worthy of the D in this thread--except maybe for the commenter who offered up a prayer and wish for his well-being and that of his family.

Lot of fear going around, I guess. Fear that breeds cruel attitudes.

[bobbolink]

13. VERY good observation, valelse!

I guess my only question would be... was he sympathetic to homeless people before this experience?

Maybe he's learning something?

[varelse]

21. Maybe he's learning something?

I have no doubt that he is, as are many of us (myself included). I hope that at a national level, we will be able to convert the lessons into progressive action, rather than regressive finger-pointing, divisive stereotyping, and ignorant pandering to the upper 1% who are (currently) running the show and who are not only responsible for most of this meltdown, but actually profiting from it (I have just finished reading the Web of Debt and I'm now close to finishing "The Shock Doctrine" and boy, and I depressed right now).

"A house divided against itself cannot stand"

I think our "house" (our democracy) is in dire need of repair, and in desparate danger of collapsing. Our only hope is to stand together, homeless with nearly-homeless, under-employed with unemployed, the well with the sick, the soldier with the conscientious objector, the small business owner with the union leader, stand UP to the ruling elite and stand FOR equal opportunity, a sane and reasonable social infrastructure, and an adequate social safety net.

[Peace Patriot]

26. Beautiful comment, Varelse! Thanks!

I love this part: "Our only hope is to stand together, homeless with nearly-homeless, under-employed with unemployed, the well with the sick, the soldier with the conscientious objector, the small business owner with the union leader, stand UP to the ruling elite and stand FOR equal opportunity...".

[bobbolink]

28. A beautiful quotation for today, from my favorite author:

At the Bottom of the Ladder

The broken and the oppressed have taught me a great deal and have changed me quite radically. They have helped me discover that healing takes place at the bottom of the ladder, not at the top.
- Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, p.23

I think that pretty much says it all!

[eridani]

27. I think that what we are seeing here--

--is some understandable resentment of the guy's substantial stash of middle class social capital, which makes not having money much easier to deal with than is the case for people without it. However, let's all remember that even with the extra social capital, situations like this still suck a whole lot.

[ogneopasno]

10. As I said when this was posted yesterday: Toy industry, eh? Operations management, eh? I just wonder

how many jobs Mr. Nawrocki outsourced in his 36 years. Just wondering.

[Swamp Rat]

17. If I were in NY, I would follow him around, wearing my 20 yr old tattered clothing and a sign saying

-------> "This unemployed executive caused me to lose my job and pension 10 years ago, causing me to lose my family, home, and health. Please employ me instead, as I can do everything he can, but much better and for a lot less."

[bobbolink]

20. .

:hug: :loveya: :cry: :pals: