Lance Diamond is up at 4:30 every morning ready to work. It’s a routine he’s had for years. But now there’s a big difference. He was laid off in February from his job as a controller for a healthcare organization. So instead of heading out the door, Lance sits at his computer to meticulously search for jobs on career websites.
Lance, a Bensonhurst resident, is one of more than 100,000 Brooklynites who are unemployed and actively looking for a new job. Chances are he would have found that job by now if the economic circumstances were better.
With a master’s degree in business administration, he is highly qualified and has a stellar employment record in senior management positions as a controller and treasurer. Working against him, besides the sluggish economy, is his age. He is 64-years-old and concerned that employers may pass him over for younger candidates.
Having a job seems to mean more than money to Lance. “I enjoy getting up in the morning, putting on a business suit, going to work, supervising staff, instructing them, educating them,” he says, sitting in the Bensonhurst condo that he bought five years ago with his wife, Anna.
Yet his current circumstances confront him with the dreary but real possibility that what he expected to be a short-term unemployment may actually be the beginning of an unwanted retirement. The recession and its aftermath, in addition to imposing financial constraints, are also taking a psychological toll on people like Lance, who are forced to radically change their lives after years of being accustomed to an active and productive routine.
“Sure I can stay here,” Lance says, “I can sit around all day [but] it’s not doing anything for me. I am not retired – I don’t consider this situation a ‘retirement’. Retirement is usually something determined in good spirits by the person retiring and not by being forced out of work for any reason.”
Lance isn’t used to sitting around. He grew up in East Flatbush to working class Jewish parents. His mother stayed at home to take care of four sons while his father worked three blue-collar jobs. His parents, who didn’t go beyond high school because World War II interrupted their lives, insisted that their sons attend college.
Lance wasn’t the strongest student. “In high school, I was told that I’d never get into or out of college because I was a jock and my mind was on other things. Something clicked when I graduated high school. I started doing college at night.” Lance eventually graduated college and went on to earn his MBA from Adelphi University.
Whatever he may have lacked in natural academic talent, Lance makes up for it with his confidence and orderliness, characteristics that have helped him succeed in a career in finance.
When Lance speaks, it’s as if he’s still addressing the staff he used to oversee. He gestures with his hands and pauses frequently to observe if everyone understood what he said. His condo is well kept with every item neatly placed.
At first glance, his home office is so tidy it appears unused. But the piles of stacked job applications and a Mickey Mouse calendar on the wall are testimony to his work routine in his office – he has marked off every day since he’s been laid off.
It hardly needs to be said that Lance is the kind of person who needs order and creates plans to maintain control. So losing his job was more than a surprise.
“Was I expecting it? No, not at all. It came as a shock only because I had many accomplishments while I was there,” Lance explains. “Before my termination, there were a few [colleagues] that were let go. And then it was my turn.”
Lance was “transitioned out” of his job as the company’s controller, where he was in charge of the company’s audits and oversaw a staff of eight. He says his layoff was part of the company’s reorganization – a type of downsizing – that involved replacing several senior staff with new employees. While he doesn’t openly say it, you can’t help but wonder if his age factored into his termination.
But Lance avoids thinking negatively. “I don’t want to let myself go into that state where I’m thinking, like some people do, ‘Oh he doesn’t have hair, oh he’s a little chubby, oh maybe he’s too old.’”
He wants to believe that his experience and skills will help encourage future employers to look past his sparse white hair and weathered blue eyes. Yet Lance admits that age is an issue.
“I was asked right in [an] interview, ‘How much longer do you think you’re gong to be able to work?’” Lance says, with an incredulous look on his face as he recalls the interview. “Now that’s a terrible question to ask but I had the right answer. I said that I intend to work for as long as God enables me to and gives me the facilities to work. That’s how long I’m going to work.”
For now, Lance is living an alternative version of his American Dream. He and his wife, Anna, had the foresight to spend wisely and live within their means. Anna also works in finance as an assistant portfolio manager for an investment firm.
They live alone in their condo, with no children to financially support. Lance’s son from his first marriage lives in Florida with the rest of Lance’s extended family. They had a good life, and Lance thought ahead.
“I put money away, like I said, I never wanted to be rich. I wanted to live comfortably. But living comfortably means putting money away for a rainy day – putting money away in case it happens.”
By it, Lance means becoming unemployed.
Tightening their belts doesn’t include relying on food stamps as it does for other unemployed Brooklyn residents, but Lance and Anna no longer have the same middle-class lifestyle they had only a year ago.
“This is the first year we couldn’t go down to Florida to my granddaughter’s birthday. Normally we could take two weeks off from work, go down to Florida and then continue [the vacation] in Aruba.”
While Anna’s income helps to pay the bills, Lance opted to begin receiving Social Security early. “When it became obvious to me that it was going to take a while before I would be offered and accept new employment, due to the economic crisis, and for the fact that I needed funds with which to live, I filed to start collected Social Security in August 2011,” says Lance.
He also had a 401K retirement account, but he used most of that as a down payment for the condo. He doesn’t want to dip into what’s left, so he has reduced all non-essential spending, such as going to Williamsburg to eat at one of their favorite restaurants, Peter Luger Steakhouse. He says the couple has even started to stock up on canned goods, which Lance hopes he never has to use.
Even though it’s been nine months, Lance seems confident he will find a job and go back to the lifestyle he previously had. He’s well aware of all the obstacles, such his age and not having the international appeal that many companies now look for as they vet candidates for high level positions.
“You can’t let yourself freak out. There are reasons, and I know what the reason is, why I haven’t been successful in finding a job. The main reason is because there are so many people out of work,” Lance says. “There’s always going to be someone who has a qualification that I don’t.”
“I’m going to search for as long as I can, in any capacity, whether it’s full-time, part-time, [or] temporary because that’s who I am.”
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