Jobless Execs Face Tough Lifestyle Changes

(CBS)  He once analyzed multi-billion dollar deals; now Russ Long evaluates: "whites" or "colors."

His work was once "Dealing with customers, clients having problem... resolving problems," Russ tells CBS News correspondent Seth Doane.

"Now I'm doing the laundry!" Russ says, sorting clothes.

Eight-eight thousand finance and insurance jobs have vanished since April - like Russ's. For 21 years, he worked at Standard & Poor's, most recently in mortgage-backed securities - at the very center of the meltdown.

"I'd like to think that there were mistakes made," says Russ, "but I don't think that I took down the economy single-handedly."

The good years were really good - a sprawling suburban New Jersey home and the chance for wife Laura to be a full-time mom. Now, there's uncertainty everywhere.

"Do I stay home with him all day with him?" Laura wonders. "Or is he going to be depressed if I don't stay home with him? Should I go do my stuff?"

"Did you worry about that - him being depressed?" Doane asks.

"I did worry about that - yeah… because I just felt like - that was his livelihood," Laura says.

Along with his livelihood, Russ' severance is almost gone too. So, Laura now trudges off to work as a surgical nurse - making a fraction of what he did.

Russ admits it's all very deflating - driving the car pool and doing the dishes. He wonders when he'll be the provider again.

He says he's sent his resume and applied to couple hundred jobs - and only had five or six interviews.

"Internet postings are almost a total waste of time," says Matt Bud, who heads a group that coaches white-collar workers just like Russ.

He says in-person networking is the key - four out of five jobs are found that way.

In meetings across the country, Bud's group teaches the fine art of the "elevator speech."

"If you think about going down an elevator - you've got about 90 seconds - where you just have a brief amount of time to tell people what it is you do - to sell yourself," Budd says.

But it's a buyer's market. At one New York job fair, 2,400 people swarmed recruiters trying to sell themselves - four times more than the year before. The average job search drags on for more than four months now.

For Russ, it's nine months and counting. Missing the camaraderie as much as the work itself, he regularly meets up with other out-of-work execs.

"Hopefully I'll look back at it with fond memories - of a time that I had to, you know, be closer to my family," he says, sorting laundry. "But, you know, right now there are economic situations that make things, you know, cause me concern."

Another American trying to sort-out the future.

[scapato]

Your right of course, but don''t you have anything better to do? Get a life.

[roghil]

While you''re correcting yourself, it is Ivy League not Ivory League. Unless you''re an elephant hunter.

[scapato]

I can''t believe how stupid some of these bloggers are. I know that Russells severance package was not in the millions and that his job at S&P had nothing to do with the financial mess we now face. I know Russ would rather be working then appearing on the CBS News. It takes a lot of courage and chutzpah to appear on a broadcast about losing ones job. Some of you people are real idiots. I would also like to correct my previous blog ( it should read ladder not latter as stated twice)just goes to show my lack of Ivory League education.I bet most of you who ripped Russell didn''t live in an attic apartment for 5 years as you worked your way through Grad School.

[scapato]

I would like to comment on this story as I have been a personal friend on Russ Long for 30 years. He is not some spoiled executive. Russ and I both came to Wall Street straight out of college in 1982 at a salary of less then 12 thousand dollars. Neither of us were rich kids who went to Ivory League schools but from average middle class roots. Russell worked his way through grad school while working at various back office clerical jobs on the street. We were roommates for several years sharing a small apartment on the the third floor of a house in Bayonne NJ. He put in his time working his way up the latter at S&P. He is not responcible for this financial mess and neither is he looking for any sympathy. Anybody who knows him could speak for his integrity and honesty. This piece is simply showing that these problems can hit anyone at anytime no matter what level one occupies on the economic latter. I wish him and anyone who''s lost their job all the luck in the world

[mytoosense]

Sorry, I have more sympathy for the guy laid off worrying about feeding and sheltering his family and worrrying about losing his calluses.

[schoolmarm22]

Didn''t Standard and Poor pay their executives handsome salaries and bonuses that were more than most American''s earn in a year? Why not save some of that income back, just in case of job loss, catastrophic illness, or some other emergency? Whining about doing laundry while his wife resumes working isn''t really going to illicit any tears from me. My husband''s job was outsourced and I work 2 jobs as well as attending college part-time. My husband is in a retraining program and manages many of the household chores as well as helping to make sure the needs of our children are met. Reality sucks, and the reality is that he should thank his lucky stars that his wife has marketable skills that enable her to return to the workforce in a relatively high paying field.

[tngreen]

Reading this article made me feel even better about being single and working class. I can survive by working two jobs if I have to, because I''ve done it before, and because I live a simple life, within my means. And I don''t have to put up with any man''s *** about how degrading it is to do laundry, because my house is my own and is completely male-ego free. I''m living the sweet life, one that Russ will never know and could never appreciate. What a chump.

[lloydbest1]

"She seems to be having the hardest time adjusting to this life altering change, since it seems her lifestyle has been affected the most, but if she realizes that what matters most isnt status, the size of her house, the cars she drives, or the size of her ring but FAMILY, then maybe she will find good things will come her way..........."
Also Posted by smokey1weim at 10:16 AM : Jan 24, 2009

The wisdom expressed in the last sentence of your post can not be over emphasized so I am repeating it. If both "Russ" and "Laura" focus on those things that are truly important - such as family - they both will make out O.K. In fact they could easily emerge from this disaster stronger and better off where it counts than before.
However P.O''d I may be now, I hope they not only survive, but learn some important lessons and thrive again.

[lloydbest1]

"..Let''s remember these people have a family to support and a life style they have become accustom to..."
Posted by smokey1weim at 10:16 AM : Jan 24, 2009

That''s part of the problem and the reason for the resounding absence of sympathy. A lifestyle that is way out of bounds considering how many nationwide do not have enough to meet basic needs tho'' they work as hard as "Russ" did. And "Russ" is nowhere nearly as ostentatious or as blatant as so many are (or were), nor does he and his family live anywhere nearly as "large".
The malefeasance of so many who practise his profession is a primary driver of our collapsing economy. "Russ" and people who do what he does for a living own a disproportionate onus of liability for that collapse.
I am fully aware he, himself, might be completely innocent and as such, I don''t want this man to go to jail or stand naked in the town square begging forgiveness. But he IS going to have to continue feeling some pain. He IS going to have to undergo massive material downsizing. He IS going to have to understand that he will almost certainly not live long enough to see our economy bounce back to the point that he can enjoy the prosperity his family once had. And he WILL need to learn to live at a standard that is much more austere than what he is accustomed to now.
So will I for that matter. (continued)

[indamiddle]

a lot of these fu(kers needs to be executed