The News Journal
By Angie Basiouny
April DuPree didn’t think she’d become a statistic.
She had a good job for 13 years as a production team leader for uniform maker Cintas Corp. in Wilmington. But her office packed up and left for Philadelphia in a cost-cutting move a few months ago, taking her job with it.
Now DuPree finds herself among the 36,000 Delawareans who are unemployed and trying to figure out their next career move in a dismal job market that offers little opportunity.
“I was shocked,” she said. “Thirteen years and suddenly I don’t get up and go to work anymore. Thirteen years and there wasn’t a trick that I could do — so I had to seek other things to do.”
She is not alone. Unemployment, now more than 10 percent nationally, is at its highest level since the early 1980s. When you add in the unemployed who have given up looking for a job and part-time workers who want full-time work, the figure is 17.5 percent.
DuPree’s story is increasingly common as hundreds of thousands of people put out of work by the recession struggle with feelings of hopelessness, depression, anger, guilt, boredom, nagging self-doubt and being overwhelmed at the prospect of finding a new job in a super-tight market where potential employers can have their pick of hires. The task is especially daunting for some who are job-hunting again after decades of stable employment and haven’t written a resume in years, much less posted it online.
In her struggle, DuPree is finding comfort in her Christian faith, moral support from her 12-year-old daughter, and practical help in job-readiness classes at West End Neighborhood House.
The nonprofit social service organization in Wilmington is among a growing number of agencies offering free classes for residents needing to reinvent themselves after a job loss. The goal is to give students a competitive edge, and a big boost of self-confidence to believe they will find work again.
The classes teach everything from the basics to the technical.
There’s resume writing, job interviewing and computer training along with more rudimentary concepts, such as how to dress appropriately for an interview, give a firm handshake and speak with authority.
DuPree showed no lack of confidence as she led a group of fellow students through a role-playing exercise to teach customer-service skills. The students came up with a pharmacy scenario, acted out the parts and listened to a follow-up critique.
“Before this class, I really didn’t know how to sell myself because I was already there. I already had a job,” DuPree said. “But I need [future employers] to know that I’m the best person for the job.”
Each student in the class has a tough story to share. They are longtime workers who lost their jobs when their industries contracted, underemployed workers looking for something better, and the working poor now scrapping for low-paying jobs against applicants with graduate degrees.
“I thought when I got out of high school, that was going to be enough. If I could have seen that …,” said Veronica Rutter, her voice trailing off as she gets lost in a memory.
Rutter, 62, was laid off in February from a $10-an-hour job as a security guard. Now she worries that her age will stop her from getting the next job.
“I’m an old lady,” she says with a laugh. “They think they’re going to get more out of the young people. But I can work circles around them.”
At 26, Bryan Nickle is one of those young people. His seven-month temporary job as a security guard for an armored car expired in September, and he worries that his age and lack of experience will hinder his future employment.
“I’m here trying to find where I am in my life,” he said.
Tina Simpkins, 44, earned her master’s degree in accounting after working as a hairdresser for 26 years. She wants to handle the books for a nonprofit agency.
“I am that person that no matter how much I think I know, I can always get more knowledge,” she said when asked why she’s in the class. “Nothing is beneath me.”
Catherine Hoopes, community outreach employment coordinator for West End Neighborhood House, is the class instructor whose natural empathy for her students also puts her in the role of mentor, cheerleader, therapist and disciplinarian.
“They come here and they are confused,” she said. “They have been moved from their comfort spot and they have to start from scratch. We are here to help with that.”
Some students need just a little polish while others are true diamonds in the rough. Hoopes recalls a student who came to class the first day with resume in hand. It was printed on pastel pink and baby blue paper. It was scented. And it was four pages.
Shortly after she finished the course, the student called Hoopes to tell her she found a new job.
“When they give me that phone call that ‘I got a job,’ I can’t explain it,” Hoopes said. “I am as happy as they are.”
Shante Garner can identify with Hoopes.
She is a director with Advanced Staffing Training Institute, a temp firm hired by the Department of Labor to teach job-readiness classes. The state pays for the classes through stimulus money and recently inked another deal with the firm for a class specifically for former Chrysler employees. The automaker shuttered its Newark plant late last year.
Garner’s first lesson is how to organize a job search and fight the lack of motivation that comes from suddenly having a day with endless hours of nothing in particular to do.
“I get them in the mind-set that finding a job is a job,” she said. “They have to get up out of the bed, get dressed and keep the television off.”
The students — from an out-of-work janitor to a laid-off corporate vice president — bond over the shared frustrations of unemployment.
“It’s helpful to be in an environment where they have other people who are going through what they’re going through,” she said. “When you sit at home, brewing and stewing, you think you’re the only one in the world and woe is me. So we get over the pity party here.”
Hoopes and Garner ban negative talk and challenge students to think positively about themselves, their skills and the future. Though sometimes class devolves into a venting session.
“People are bitter, they are angry,” Garner said. “I try to get them to understand that anger is like taking a poison and waiting to die. Let’s recognize it is an emotion, go through it, and let’s get back to work.”
For some students, the classes help them figure out how to transfer skills garnered from years of working in one industry to a different one. That’s essential, Garner said, because some industries have shed so many jobs that going back is not an option.
DuPree is on the road to reinvention. She’s enrolled in classes to earn her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Strayer University, and she just passed the state exam to become a corrections officer. Her long-term goal is to become a criminal investigator and, someday, an attorney.
“My life is not ending with a period,” she said. “It’s a comma.”