"Just Like Starting Over"

Laid off Lucent, AT&T employees meet monthly for networking, moral support

Article published in the Two River Times,
November 22, 2002 by John Burton

RED BANK - In a climate of general economic malaise the telecommunications industry appears to be especially hard hit, with many start-ups failing to start-up and with round after round of employee bloodletting at the larger entities like Lucent Technologies and AT"T.

"The technology industry lately has been crazy," observed Laura Jewell, a former Lucent employee.

Since leaving Lucent, Jewell has established her own marketing business and organized a networking forum for AT&T and Lucent alumni who are looking for career opportunities.

Her original networking list of former employees has grown from about 100 a year ago to 700 today, Jewell said. "It's not just New Jersey either. It goes through Europe."

Since last January, the forum has been meeting approximately once a month at area restaurants, with about 25-to-50 people attending. There is often a guest speaker, and some people bring resumes and business cards to exchange.

Others simply welcome a chance to chat with former co-workers and keep in touch with how everyone is doing. "It is more and more important to keep in touch," Jewell said.

Last Tuesday, Jewell held a forum at The Oakland House restaurant, 58 Oakland St., Red Bank. Thirty-five people attended at a cost of $28 each.

"If nothing else it keeps you in contact with people you worked with," observed Joan Manley, Neptune. Manley had worked for Lucent at its Middletown facility's marketing department for 19 years, when she was laid off in June 2001.

"It's definitely a wakeup call if nothing else," Manley said of losing her job. "It makes you refocus."

Since leaving Lucent Manley said she has been looking for a position primarily in the marketing field, "but I'm willing to look at other opportunities," she said. "It's tight all over."

Many on the technical side of the technology industry have spent their careers working in a very specific area, sometimes for years on one project. For those, it can be "very difficult moving beyond that point," Jewell acknowledged.

Bill Hyland, Whitehouse Station, had worked at Lucent/AT&T for 18 years, in a number of locations including Middletown, Morristown and Murray Hill. He now works as a financial planner and conducts a similar type of forum. His group comes together about four times a year, and consists of an e-mail list of roughly 470 who have been involved in the telecommunications industry.

"I think at this point a lot of the reaction I hear is that this has gone on longer than expected," Hyland said of the current economic slowdown. "They're teetering on the brink of pessimism."

"I think what bothers me the most is having to go out there proving myself all over again," acknowledged John Allen, Lincroft. Allen took an early retirement package and then accepted a marketing position with a spin-off of Hitachi Electronics, working with optical components in the marketing department. Shortly after coming on board, orders for the product dropped and Allen was laid off.

Despite the setback, Allen, who is 60-years-old, is sanguine. He has had five separate careers. "It is scary, it is frightening," he noted. "But if one sticks to what one knows, you will be successful."

Advice that Allen's wife, Janine is banking on. Janine had also been working at Lucent, most recently in the Holmdel location in human resources, until she was laid off in the spring. "Today I cashed my last unemployment check," she said. Now she hopes to take what has been a hobby and make it a going enterprise. Janine creates and sews decorative quilted bags - "humbug bags" she calls them - and plans to sell them this holiday season at craft shows.

She enjoys working at home. "You can't beat the work environment when I'm sitting at my sewing machine with the TV on," she said. "The commute is great, too."

"I've been working my whole life," said Martha Matthews, Tinton Falls, who has taken the opportunity to recharge her batteries, consider her options, work on her home, and for the previous summer, worked on her tan. "I think I'll try to go in a totally different direction. Knowing the industry I think I'll look for something else."

These type of forums are "good for the camaraderie," she said. But also one hears similar commiseration from the former employees, she said. "I think everybody expresses a certain amount of disgust with upper management," she said. In the last year, Jewell contended that while the economic forecast remains somewhat precarious there is a general sense of optimism from forum participants.

"There's more opportunities," than a year ago, she insisted. "There is a life outside of Lucent."