Over 50 And Out Of Work: 'My Wife Doesn't Love Me Anymore; My Kids Don't Love Me' (VIDEO)

Mike's career as a draftsman started falling apart in 2008. When the financial crisis hit, he spent a year working as a contractor, and then a few weeks working for a friend before a starting an endless stretch of unemployment. Now his wife is working two full-time jobs to pick up the slack.

"We see her very little, and usually when we do see her she's dead tired and doesn't want to do anything," Mike says in a video posted online May 9. "It's miserable."

Mike says one of his two daughters wants to go to college next year. "I don't know how she's going to pay for it. The finger gets pointed at me," he says, his eyes weary. "I seem to have lost my edge. I can't get an interview anymore."

"My wife doesn't love me anymore," he says, smiling instead of crying. "My kids don't love me."

His video lives on Over 50 And Out Of Work, a site created by New York-based journalist Susan Sipprelle to document the jobs crisis among older workers. Sipprelle, 52, is looking out for people like herself.

"I could see the impact this is having on my peers," she says. "So many of our interviewees thought they were set for life."

The site has videos of jobless Americans from all over the country. Sipprelle and her team this week embarked on their final trip -- to Louisville, Ky. -- where they will film their 100th interview.

Workers older than 55 are much less likely to lose their jobs, but once they do, they're much more likely to be unemployed for a long time. The average jobless spell for older workers now lasts longer than a year. The anxiety and despair among people stuck in this situation has been well-documented in studies, particularly by Carl Van Horn at Rutgers University's John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. (Van Horn is one of several experts Sipprelle has interviewed for the project.)

But statistics and expert witnesses can't convey the poignancy that Sipprelle's jobless interview subjects can.

Elizabeth Zima, of Calistoga, Calif., for one, has been out of work since she lost her job as a health care writer in 2008 and has already blown through her retirement savings.

"I can't pay my taxes," says Zima, 57, suppressing sobs in a March 15 video. "I can't pay my taxes. I've always filed. I always have felt it's been my responsibility. I can't pay 'em. Even an extension -- I'm not gonna be able to pay 'em."

Sipprelle says two or three of the people she's profiled have since found work with pay comparable to what they'd earned before being laid off. A few others have taken jobs with much worse pay, while some have struck out as entrepreneurs. "We have a handful in really, really bad shape," she says.

Comments

[pigbitinmad]

11:39 AM on 07/06/2011

I don't care what all these Polly Anna's say. There is no upside to being over 45. NONE ZERO. I think i am gonna hang myself. And I have an interview for what I believe is probably a $10 per hour part time job. They sent me an application to fill out which is ten pages long and which asks me to regurgitate everything that is on my resume. After each job entery it asks "What Value Did You add?" I have a masters degree and it wants to know where I went to High School. I also have to authorize a credit and drug test. This is absolute bull. And of course it asks if I am "currently employed." You know darn well what a "no" will mean. Quite frankly, I don't want to even go to this interview because it is hopeless....unless of course I go with a bomb strapped to my back. But hey, if all the people who are really on the verge of killing themselves did that, employers might think twice about this stupid crap. I MEAN COME ON!! A drug test, credit history and criminal background check for a lousy data entry job??

[Gene Allen]

05:12 PM on 05/22/2011

Who signed NAFTA into law giving tax write offs to buisnesses for the move? Clinton that's who. Who is allowing thousands of illegals into America to take some of the few jobs we have left? Obama. Who is raping our nation of its resourcess these same illegals Washington refuses to deport that's who. Yet you still blame the Republicans.

[Tara Hunkoff]

10:18 PM on 05/20/2011

I feel for this gentleman, but I admire his grasp of his problem.

He admits that:
1) technology has erased any "craft" advantage past about five years experience
2) his unemployment came at a time when drafting was undergoing some big changes that he couldn't keep up with because he had no job to pay for more training.

All is not lost, however. The one thing he does still have is general knowledge of drafting and a long list of industry contacts.

He should start a "job shop" just like the one he used to work for.

Like many firms that are essentially brokerage operations, firms that supply other firms with temporary technical help can be started with almost no investment beyond a phone and some salesmanship.

I wish him well.

[Sibil]

01:41 PM on 05/20/2011

When you look that desprate of course you arent going to get a job...Employers can sense it. You have to get your mojo back and present confidence. I too am over 55 and lost my job, but Ive had many interviews and now get to pick and choose which job I want.....

Course when you have a big mortgage, a wife, and ungrateful children who have a sense of entitlement its hard to be confident.

I dont have that problem and can go back to work when I WANT too, not because I have too...

[Trepasky]

02:23 PM on 05/20/2011

SOme of us over 55+ are not in your position and finding a job is a lot more difficult.
I worked for 40 years as a computer professional. I am 62 and unemployed for 3+ years.
I can not even get a job from WalMart, they say I am over qualified, same with McDonalds, grocery stores, and such.

[canpete]

08:01 AM on 05/20/2011

from mamma romma:
"And you didn't learn to write or spell English properly?'

for the illiterate amongst us it should read: " read and write english".

[jmayes]

01:56 PM on 05/20/2011

Actually, it should be "read and write English".

[Elyriaohio]

06:18 AM on 05/20/2011

Thank God for Temp Contracts or I'd be in the same boat. I have no illusions that Corporate America gives a rat's tail about us, but at least acknowledge there is a GIANT problem of
disenfranchised workers who are out here banging our heads every day against a very thick wall.
My dad made it through the Great Depression, I hope I make it through this.

[PABLOyPABLO]

05:39 AM on 05/20/2011

By wire? What does he mean "by wire"? We don't use wires anymore, dude.

[PABLOyPABLO]

05:36 AM on 05/20/2011

If you're making a house payment you don't own your home.

[BeachBro]

03:03 AM on 05/20/2011

I feel really bad for Mike, seriously bad. But I be he voted for Bush - Twice! Mike says he can't blame his wife, etc...I know who can blame for your condition and millions of others Mike, GWB.

Don't anyone try tell me don't take this political..it's very political. The link is inextricable! Many of us knew during GWB's era that he was 'stickin' it to us 'and did all we could to persuade people he's taking us down the wrong road, scaring us with "the terrist, the terrist..." then tells us he's not worried about OSL - after spending trillions on b/s wars and bloated unnecessary gov't bureacratic layers like DHS and the totally inept TSA. And many of us caught holy hell for saying the things we said about GWB (which proved dead on true) Had GWB paid a modicum of attention to the nation's domestic concerns...Mike would most likely still have his job today and his wife would not need to be working two jobs and his kids would hold great admiration for their dad. Pay attention to the political scene Mike...it really does matter.

[newthinktank]

09:46 AM on 05/20/2011

You can't really blame GWB for everything. The fact is that policy wise every president for the last 30 years has done their best to destroy the middle class. Reagan doubled taxes for small business owners by doubling payroll taxes, weakened unions, drastically cut corporate taxes, etc.

Clinton is responsible for deregulating the financial system further, created the tax deferral system (paying corporations to ship jobs overseas), nafta, etc.

Obama's economic policies are almost identical to Bush Sr. He also extended Bush's tax cuts for Millionaires and Billionaires. He also has not done anything that he campaigned on ended wars, close gitmo, created affordable healthcare programs, etc.

Our system of government needs to change dramatically, or what is the point of voting. If you only have the choice of voting for one corporate controlled republican or another corporate controlled republican (that calls themselves a democrat) there is no choice at all.

[JB1977]

12:25 PM on 05/20/2011

F&F for the truth.

[BeachBro]

05:36 PM on 05/21/2011

Great post..but I absolutely CAN blame Bush for this particular mess! He is the herbert Hoover of our time..although history shows us that Hoover wasn't solely responsible as you've laid out above regarding the presidents (and their actions) preceding Bush. This mess lands squarely at his feet. Might as well not blame Iraq on him either...

Reagan was the worse of them all, although he had an excuse..he had alzheimers (before he was sworn in I don't care what anyone says). And yes Clinton and Obama are the others side of the same coin..however, there's bad Obama and Clinton and there's downright catasrophy (Bush I & II & Reagan) with tie being between Bush II and Reagan as being the songle most damaging figures to the nation. Yes, you are correct... we need dramatic change - but do the corporate masters feel that way? No..so it ain't coming-

Beach

[rhdsma]

02:45 PM on 05/20/2011

I lost my full time in 09, on Valentines Day! Thanks, WB, will never forget.

[Over Fifty and OutofWork]

08:55 AM on 05/21/2011

Hi rhdsma. Sorry to hear that you're out of work. How are you coping?

[ProgressivesWin]

02:48 AM on 05/20/2011

From a Best of the Blogs post: " We were told that tax cuts would help us "grow our way out of deficits." They didn't. Again, that is fact. We were told the tax cuts would give us a rollicking, healthy economy. Look around you. They failed. That is a fact. In short, every argument in favor of the cuts has failed to materialize. The Bush tax cuts are -- as a simple matter of historical fact -- a complete failure. They are currently zombie policy; dead arguments, inexplicably still shambling around, serving no actual, real world purpose and feeding off the public dime."
We have a crumbling national infrastructure, and projects all around us that could put these people back to work, and yet our Congress sits on its hands. The Bush Bailout threw HOW MANY BILLIONS at the banksters and Wall Street tycoons from the treasury? And we have, what, 350 million citizens? It would have been cheaper to give every family a million bucks each. It would have helped avoid the insufferability of the crooks who took our money to bonus themselves with it while millions of us lose our homes, pensions, health care and hope.

[NoBamain12]

01:31 PM on 05/20/2011

The Bush bailout? Didn't a democrat congress pass it? BTW, get you facts straight about the effect of the tax cuts. The congress - republicans and democrats spent all the money and more. And while you are blaming Bush, do the same with Obama. Do you know how much he has spent in 2+ years?

[ProgressivesWin]

04:24 PM on 05/20/2011

ALL of the bailout programs started with the Bush Administration. Short memory, huh? Paulsen's 3-page demand that he be given all financial authority without restriction ring a bell? Congress was told by the Bush administration that the country would collapse unless this was done IMMEDIATELY. The Dems insisted at least SOME oversight was included, and history has shown that the entire purpose was to transfer the wealth of the treasury to Wall Street. It was a soft coup with longstanding ramifications, something planned by BushCo and his corporate buddies for years. I do not give Obama a pass, but at least he has not shown the BLATANT and intentional malice that the Bush Administration exhibited on behalf of the financial corporations.

[djets12]

09:14 PM on 05/20/2011

I'm sure Mike would be able to get a union construction job to do all this infrastructure work, right?

[williamwilliam2]

12:42 AM on 05/20/2011

52 CAD jobs came up on a search in elance.com.

[spinotter11]

10:22 AM on 05/20/2011

All in Portland, Oregon or nearby?

[Keith House]

01:38 PM on 05/20/2011

And 10,000 people applied for those 52 jobs. What is your point?

[Over Fifty and OutofWork]

08:56 AM on 05/21/2011

WOW!

[Hotness]

02:20 PM on 05/21/2011

And no they didn't. Deadbeat myth # 4. Losing your job may not have been your fault, not getting another one is.

[TruelyFedUp]

07:42 PM on 05/19/2011

Hello Folks,

We have been working on the solution to this problem for awhile and we have come up with this solution; http://directory.ic.org/23400/Essers_Peace___Dancing_in_the_Light

This is a forming community on 142 acres of land on a river in south central Missouri. We want to gather together people to help create a vital, healthy, very inexpensive way of living together. It is a land base where we share the cost of basics like electricty, internet services, taxes and bulk foods we cannot yet grow organically.

We need capable people to share the costs and the more of us there are the less cost there is to the individual. Right now we are talking about $200 per month per person for all expenses. This cost will eventually go down because we will work together to make it self sustaining and cheaper.

We want to make the work to sustain it very efficient and have a target of 4 hours per day tops to keep the land base and food supply stable. Ultimately it may require only two hours a day and $20 per month in cost per person. After that your time is free to create a web business or to love your family or to create some other source of income that will be your own and not shared with the community.

If you can help by joining us or donating chickens or a cow please let us know!

[artleads]

02:13 AM on 05/21/2011

Just a quick thought about work: It's personal. The human person is born to work at something of his/her own choosing. I think it's important to keep this idea central. Working to support an IC may or may not be what a given individual is naturally (autonomously) oriented to doing. It might be a good idea to look into a prospective community member's inner drive to do the kind of work you need done to keep the community viable. What are your thoughts on that? And how do you handle the inevitable conflicts that arise in human congregations?

[TruelyFedUp]

09:43 AM on 05/21/2011

The purpose of being very efficient at doing the work of maintaining the food supply and the community base is to keep that work to 4 hours or less per person per day. One woman who lived in a community through her childhood said the work was usually done in 2 hours a day.

After that a person's time is their own to manage as they please. We expect that some will be artists and do what they do. Others will start cottage industries and sell products while others will create web based jobs. Some will have income from pensions, etc. and they might help the children, or learn to dance or play an instrument or write a book or learn a language. The income that an individual produces will belong to them alone.

So far we have attracted only strong minded, creative and intelligent people who care about the wellbeing of others. We think it is going to be a vital, interesting, very happy group of 150 - 300 people.

We will also work to create more communities throughout the country and the world. Eventually we see people travelling all over the world visiting similar communities, learning from other cultures and helping to create a different society without wars, exploitive economics, sharing resources, living on their own home grown organic food and creating government at a local level that serves the people.

[Ruben 731]

07:11 PM on 05/19/2011

I love my job in 2008 and have not found study work since...and at 54 it just is not looking good, you name it I apply their and no callback. I have a lot of DJ equipment so I started working for myself ...but the gigs are very very slow but I keep working at it. I have been with out a car for 1 1/2 years lost both cars wife and the kids take the bus as for I ride my bike a lot that is how we keep food in the house... I know my wife is see some one and when I told her about it she said then who is going to take care of me and pay the bills...she just tolerates me now because of how much my daughter love me and loves to be around me my son has turn to crime and is lock-up in youth camp....both my kids and I use to do a lot of camping when I was working...I do hope one day we can go camping again.

[sloreader]

09:44 AM on 05/20/2011

Hang tough Ruben.

[Over Fifty and OutofWork]

09:05 AM on 05/21/2011

Ruben. Could you please contact us at www.OverFiftyandOutofWork.com? We'd love to hear your story!
Our email is: [e-mail]

[TMS333]

05:26 PM on 05/19/2011

I'm over 55 and have applied at McD's---Wal-mart and even as a Bell Hop for a Holiday Inn...not ONE RETURN RESPONSE TO MY FLAWLESS APPLICATION, PHENOMENAL WORK RECORD, IMPECCABLE REFERENCES AND UNMATCHED INTEGRITY...It's MORE THAN OBVIOUS I AM BEING DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BECAUSE I AM FEMALE AND EDUCATED!

[Kilburn Hall 1]

04:31 PM on 05/19/2011

Mike- I see a whole new career here for you and a series of books similar to the Chicken Soup series. My Wife Doesn't Love Me Anymore; My Kids Don't Love Me Anymore, My Dog Don't Love Me Anymore, My Bartender Don't Love Me Anymore, My Facebook Friends Don't Love Me Anymore etc, etc. Could open up new doors for you as a new career path and be very profitable.. Let me know how it works out for you.

[JB1977]

12:27 PM on 05/20/2011

You're a ffucckin dewsh.