GIVEN all the contrived ho-ho-ho heaped upon us by merchants after our money, this is probably the worst time of the year to be without a job. Unemployment is scary enough, and the added pressure of Christmas gift giving lays an extra dimension of pressure on one suddenly without the means of earning an income.
Many are facing that prospect here and at newspapers throughout the nation, where buyouts and layoffs are the realities of plunging circulations. While the young may find departures with pay a means of moving on to something better, older workers committed to a career that suddenly vanishes face a different and darker prospect.
To those who follow my twice-weekly output, I offer an assurance -- or a warning -- that I'm not among those who must seek other, and perhaps less satisfying, ways of making a living. I have, at least until now, survived the turmoil and the sadness that many of my colleagues are being forced to confront.
Worry and fear were palpable emotions during weeks of rumors that circulated throughout the domains of a newspaper once known as "the velvet coffin" for the perks that characterized a place once rich and comfortable. It has taken the events of the past days to make us realize that the Chandlers no longer hold us in their cozy embrace.
But even as rumors became reality here, tightening was evident in other places across the nation, notably the 30,000 "reductions" announced by General Motors. Twelve plants will be shut down throughout the U.S. and Canada, leaving their workers to face the cold winter of discontent without jobs. This while the company's CEO is said to sit comfortably upon a retirement plan that will pay him almost $5 million a year.
Not among those who have millions awaiting them is a good friend named Russ, who, for the second time in his 30 years with GM, is facing the prospect of being without a job. The first time was in 1992 when the company closed its Van Nuys plant, sending Russ and his family to Beaverton, Ore., where a GM parts warehouse remained open.
It was a life-altering move to uproot his wife and two children from a new home in Saugus to an unknown situation a thousand miles north, but it was either that or leave the company he had served for all those years and give up a pension, which, while less than that of the CEO he worked for, was too important to abandon.
