Dress for Success
It’s tough out there. Whether you’re unemployed, underemployed, employed-but-overworked, disabled but wanting to work, or know someone in one of these categories, this economy has hit virtually all of us.
I met a lady the other day in the wee hours of Black Friday, as she sat behind me in line in the shoe aisle in Wal-Mart, waiting for the opportunity to save a buck or two on a digital camera for her son this Christmas. As we got to chatting, as is the nature of such a ridiculous situation; the camaraderie of a shared objective linking lives, albeit briefly, and stories began to unfold.
Her husband, in the construction industry, had been laid off. For over a year. Her weary eyes told me more than her words; the challenge of meeting the bills, the lingering worry over every small expense, the stress of trying to provide some modicum of a normal Christmas, and the resignation to a life previously unimagined. She sighed, “I don’t have a choice here. If I don’t come now, there will be no Christmas for my kids.”
How many others in our line, I wondered, were facing similar hardships? Why did the folks on Main Street have to pay for the foibles of Wall Street? When was this situation ever going to end?
“There’s no work,” the woman told me. “It used to be great only a short time ago.” Now with the collapse of the housing market, the credit market, long lines for not-enough jobs, and rising prices, we’re all being stretched to the limit.
There’s news that the unemployment rate has slowed a bit and is now hovering around 10 percent, according to the Labor Department. According to Reuters.com, President Obama, during a recent visit to Pennsylvania, said:
“We still have a long way to go. I still consider one job lost, one job too many. The journey from here will not be without setbacks or struggle. There will be more bumps in the road. But the direction is clear.”
It’s encouraging but offers little comfort to those like my friend in line at Wal-Mart. And we were in a nice western suburb of Chicago.
What about in the inner cities, where poverty is the norm in the “good” times, when double-digit unemployment is the scourge of the neighborhood and there’s few options out there to scrape by? How, for instance, can somebody in Harlem afford to dress nicely for an interview, should they be so lucky to land one? Seems an untenable situation, save for one bright light.
According to the New York Times, Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey did an amazing thing. They offered a free outfit to anybody needing proper interview clothes, with a limit of $50. Well, as author Clyde Haberman notes, “…$50 stretches far in a Goodwill store. For all intents and purposes, the outfits were free.”
This is a charity, where they usually take in donations, not give them away. But, according to Haberman, even Goodwill sees where folks really are hurting.
“Maybe the bleeding has stopped, but the patient is still ill,” said William J. Forrester, the president and chief executive of Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey. “Actual hiring has got to take place.”
They didn’t check to see if the person had a real interview lined up. They took the people at their word. For the folks at Goodwill have realized that without dignity, through work, many will never emerge from their plight. How many jobs actually are created through this program remains to be determined, but it’s a good bet that the outlook will be dramatically improved with this small gesture.
So the next time you’re cleaning out your closet, thinking you really don’t need that old suit, dress shirt, or slightly scuffed wingtips, think of Goodwill. You might just help someone get a job.
As US industrialist, Henry Kaiser, said, “Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.”
To find a local Goodwill donation center: http://goodwill.org
To read the full article: http://tinyurl.com/gwsuit
Dawn is a budgeting queen!
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