Unemployed executives - Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Sorry boys. Can't have too much sympathy for you. Most of us know in lean times one cuts back.

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Paul Joegriner hasn't worked since March 2008, when he was laid off from his $200,000-a-year job as chief executive officer of a small bank. But you wouldn't know it by appearances.

His wife, Marzena, shuttles their two young children to private school every morning. The family recently vacationed in Virginia Beach, Va., and likes to dine on Porterhouse steaks. Since losing his job, Mr. Joegriner, 44 years old, has had several offers. He's turned each down in hopes of landing a position comparable to what he held before.

The family's lifestyle over the past year and a half has been propped up by a $200,000 severance package and another $100,000 in savings -- funds the family has burned through rapidly. By Mr. Joegriner's own calculations, the family will be out of money in six months if he doesn't find work.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125780714976639687.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news

[Gman]

1. Same as millions of other people

it's just a matter of degree.

[notadmblnd]

3. except he's been able to afford to turn down several offers.

[Berry Cool]

2. He's had offers??? Why the hell hasn't he taken them????

Yeah, OK, I know, he wants something similar to what he made before. But dammit, if, say, he was offered something paying $100K rather than $200K, could he not learn to make do on less? Can they not cut out the porterhouses even before they pull the kids from private school? Could he not have taken a $100K job as a stopgap to keep money coming in to support the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed until he found that $200K job?

I just do not get it. Especially as a person who wasn't making near that much but would probably take a job paying less than I used to make just for the sake of having a job and the income it provides again, rather than having to live on unemployment and savings.

Boy, if there was ever an example of "The rich are very different from you and me"...

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. Because he's a fool

and he's going to get what he has coming. Too bad his kids are along for the ride.

[Lance_Boyle]

4. How the mighty have fallen, eh?

Not a shred of sympathy for any of the people in that article. Not one shred. Plenty of schadenfreude, though.

[meegbear]

5. Turned down job offers, private schools, vacationing ...

cry me a river. :nopity:

[Donnachaidh]

7. my heart bleeds purple panther piss for him and his private school spawn

Boo frigging hoo -- :grr: :nopity:

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. His kids are utterly innocent, but he and his wife are assholes

What a fish-eyed fool. Take whatever job you can to survive, and deal with climbing the ladder once and if things improve. It's a shame his kids have to pay the price for his stupid sense of entitlement and hubris.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Boo fucking hoo

They got 300 K NOW and are just blazing thru it...
I would kill to have than much of a cushion, it would last me the rest of my retirement.

[Berry Cool]

10. He also seems quite clueless to me, as does his wife.

She's the one used to be a paralegal, right, and is looking for work but having trouble finding a job that will accommodate the time she needs to be with the kids? Well, DUH, if she's not getting any offers either, that's why--employers probably don't give a damn about her child care issues. It would be damn nice if they did, but they don't. So either she's going to interviews saying she has child care issues and then not getting the offer, or she's getting offers but turning them down because they don't give her enough kid time. Boo hoo.

Then he goes to the supermarket, looks at the expensive cars in the lot and wonders if they're the only ones suffering. NO, you idiot, most of those cars probably belong to people living lives of quiet financial desperation JUST LIKE YOU who don't want anyone else to know they can no longer really afford to keep up with the Joneses.

They're all fools...it never occurred to them that THE JONESES ARE UNEMPLOYED, TOO!!!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Clueles, yes, Did you read how he still drives to 7-eleven for coffee every morning?

Yet uses coupons for groceries.
Does this mean the idjits do not know how to make coffee at home???
Not to mention that round trip gas cost.

:crazy:

[napi21]

9. No sympathy here Paul. From my perspective, you weren't

qualified to so the job you had either. If you and your family didn't recognize you had to reduce expenses while you were not earning any money, then you shouldn't have been caring for other peoples money at a bank!

[DJ13]

11. I see pay, I see severance, and I even see savings listed

But most CEO's make most of their money in yearly bonuses, which doesnt seem to be listed in the "were so down and out" details of this story.

I bet his portfolio is worth millions.

[The Magistrate]

12. How Many Tellers And Janitors, Sir, Do You Think The Wretch Fired In His Hey-Day?

You could fit my sympathy into the navel of a flea with room to spare....