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St. Louis Post-Dispatch Steve Giegerich column
Jan 27, 2012 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
As it approaches its third anniversary, a recession-born organization to help displaced mid-level executives may soon find itself out of work.
Executive Director Roni Chambers said this week her organization, the Go! Network, is running short on money and may not survive the summer.
Over 4,000 unemployed executives have found their way to the Go! Network since February 2009, Chambers said. Of those, the group's tracking data indicates 68 percent have subsequently found new employment.
From a technical standpoint, the recession may have drawn to an end within four months of the inaugural Go! Network meeting on that February morning.
But the 135 unemployed men and women that attended a meeting earlier this month -- an audience that included 42 newcomers -- provides ample evidence that the aftershocks of the downturn continue to reverberate throughout the region.
Chambers, a former Anheuser-Busch human resources executive, assumed co-leadership of the organization following her own lay-off in 2010. She fears the of the Go! Network, which survives on private donations, could succumb to budget pressures similar to those resulting in layoffs last year at state unemployment agencies in the area and the closing of another group that supported displaced technology workers, when the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association pulled funding.
And that would further deflate the spirits of unemployed trying to get a foothold in a market with the jobless rate still approaching 9 percent, she said.
"I still see people coming in here every Tuesday who are very afraid," said Chambers, referring to the group's regular gatherings at the St. Patrick Center in downtown St. Louis. "These poor souls walk into the room scared to death, because the welfare of their families are at risk."
The St. Patrick Center, the network's original benefactor along with Anheuser-Busch, envisioned a life-span of 12 months or less when it launched the organization in early 2009.
When the expected course correction in the job market failed to materialize, the Catholic charity withdrew its financial support of a group which, through no fault of its own, threatened to siphon resources from St. Patrick's core mission of serving the homeless.
With the change, day-to-day operations fell to Chambers and a fellow volunteer, David Greenwalt.
Under Chambers and Greenwalt, the organizational priorities shifted to workshops and programs focusing on the emotional recovery from job loss as the first step toward new employment.
"In the last 15 months, I can't tell you how many members I've seen come here in early crisis and leave a whole person again," said Chambers. "You have to heal before you can move to the next place."
St. Patrick continues to provide free office and meeting space to the Go! Network. And the non-profit has also received pro bono legal and marketing services.
But Chambers and Greenwalt have shouldered the bulk of the expenses themselves for the past 15 months.
With Greenwalt's departure last month for a full-time, paid position, the burden now rests solely with Chambers, who had hoped to build support from a consortium of local businesses, religious and community concerns.
Several potential donors she solicited responded that their charitable priorities rest with the poor rather than unemployed mid-level executives.
The effort to prevent the middle class from slipping into homelessness was ironically among the reasons the St. Patrick Center started the Go! Network.
"They may not be poor today, but they could be tomorrow," said Chambers, suggesting St. Patrick's may end up serving them one way or another.
For Chambers, the non-profit sector is worlds apart from the universe she knows from 20 years in corporate America. At the same time, she says, the contribution of the Go! Network is really no different than that of any other business.
"This is about economics," she said. "When more people are employed, our entire community benefits, and I'm sad that a valued service may go away in 2012. Or maybe it's not as valued as I thought it was."
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"What worries people in factories is electronics, robots. If you don't know jack about computers and electronics, then you don't have anything in this life anymore. One day, they're not going to need people; the machines will take over. People like me, we're not going to be around forever." -- South Carolina factory worker Madelyn Parlier
Source: Making it in America by Adam Davidson in Atlantic Monthly
BY THE NUMBERS
99,947 -- Discrimination charges referred to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2011 -- an all-time high.
Source: EEOC
FINAL WORD
"Increasingly, work is done more often collaboratively. The argument is you won't even need a cubicle. You may not even need your own desk, because you're constantly working in teams. And you therefore will just have a couch on the floor, you can bring your own laptop on a desk that is on wheels, you can work on a chair in the corner, you can work in the dining room, you can work outside on the lawn. The era of having a little cubicle where you can be monitored and watched and contained is pretty much over, for now." -- Allison Arieff, New York Times design and architecture blogger
Source: KQED Forum
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