A couple of weeks ago, a young man in his thirties, jumped to his death from a 45-story Manhattan office building. He lost his job from Solomon Brothers and was out of work a whole year.

He had a day pass to a spa on the roof of the building that also houses other finance giants like Credit Suisse. Off he went, following the only solution he felt at the moment, would assuage his pain. How ironic that he chose a spa as life’s exit door.

How very sad this is to me as a job search assistant in a non profit employment and training agency. This gentleman could have had access to a number of support clubs for camaraderie, free debt counseling and consolidation and so much more, including a National Emergency Grant up to $12,500. for displaced financial workers, to upgrade and augment job skills for his field or acquire new ones for career change…

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One of my clients related to me an incomprehensible scenario from an interview she snagged after a dry spell of several months. The woman interviewer asked her why she hadn’t worked in over a year.

Duh!

Mam, haven’t you read the newspapers? Turned on a television? Opened up Yahoo? Hello…are you living on the same planet? Like maybe your applicant in front of you couldn’t find a job in all this time? Perhaps this employer’s reality is not the frustrating one of millions of people worldwide who finds themselves depending on a government check each week to pay the rent. Perhaps because the recession hasn’t affected this employer’s business and she hasn’t been hurt personally. Perhaps because she has a job, she cannot relate to the realities of daily life in the business world across the country.

My client stayed calm and rational. I give her credit. She’s a better woman than I.

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