Striving to Attain “The American Dream”
by Patricia SiefertLink to article
My story is one that I’m sure many American workers can relate to. Although my story is that of frustration, fortunately it has required me to move forward with much perseverance.
I graduated high school in 1973, which was a year earlier than my scheduled 1974 graduation date. At that time a student had the choice of doubling up in the junior year if you had enough credits to do so. The high school I attended on Long Island,
I went on to attend a one year secretarial, airline school in Glen Cove. My parents did not approve, and refused to pay the $3000 tuition for me to attend the school. It was considered to be a waste of money for a girl to get higher education as she was expected to be married at an early age. I worked in a supermarket as a cashier to pay the tuition, and commuted with my very old car for over an hour every day. The school, “Grace Downs,” was also a boarding school, but I could not afford the extra tuition to live on campus so I was one of two girls who commuted. My dream was to work for an airline as a stewardess so I could travel around the world. There were classes in modeling, and charm, which was basically an overall training in how to be a young woman, and learn how to serve as a waitress on the plane, dress, walk, and speak. The studies were focused on outside beauty rather than intelligence. Many girls sadly thrived to catch a future husband, preferably a military student from the local Kent Military School, which was near the school in Glen Cove,
I graduated from this school in 1974, and was not able to obtain a job at any airline. At the time there were many airline strikes, and a large turnover of major airlines. Gasoline was also in limited supply, and you had to purchase gas on either odd/even days according to the number of your license plate. My solution was to try to obtain a secretarial job, which I later did accomplish, however with the help of an employment agency that I had to pay a finders fee, which took the first 6 weeks of my already low salary. I commuted over 50 miles a day, and received a weekly paycheck of $76 for a 40 hour week. I later married my high school sweetheart at 19 years old. Combined we earned about $200.00 per week before taxes, and rented an apartment of $250.00 per month. During this time we managed to save for a deposit and closing cost on a home that we purchased for $29,990.00. My husband worked as an electrician, and I as a typist in a factory that sold school supplies. I stayed at this job for the next four years until I was pregnant with out first child in 1979.
Having a mortgage of about $400.00 per month, taxes of $3000.00 per year, and a new baby required that I also get a job so I began my career as a Data Transcriber with the Internal Revenue Service working nights. My husband worked days while I stayed home with our son, and then when I went to work for the night shift, (4:30-2:00am) he cared for our baby. We usually passed one another in the driveway while he pulled up from work, and I pulled away quickly to get to work on time at 4:30 pm. This went on for almost 20 years with regular seasonal lay-offs for the summer months, and three children later. I needed the required 20 weeks of working before a layoff to qualify for unemployment insurance, so when a lay-off would come before this time where I could not collect, then my husband had to find other jobs on the side to sustain our bills, and be able to keep our home from going into foreclosure.
If I did look for any work outside the home, I usually was not successful. In spite of the fact that it is illegal to discriminate against working mothers, many office jobs did not want to hire me, because of my obligations to family, especially young children. Sadly I have not seen a change in this area as I recently interviewed for a minimum wage job at a supermarket, and was asked if my children were now grown, and if my responsibilities to family had ended. Although the work at the I.R.S. was tedious and repetitive the work environment was entirely made up of working moms so management was somewhat family friendly when you had to take off for either children being sick or a husband not being home from work to watch the children. It did come with a lot of stress as you were required to always maintain a high number of keystrokes per hour, and almost every woman developed severe carpal tunnel from the repetitive and fast typing that was mandated. After almost 20 years of working for the government and the economic downsizing after the attack on the World Trade Center, hundreds of workers were let go in what they referred to as reduction in force employees in non work status.
Many of our jobs were outsourced to workers in places like
I needed to find a job that would pay at least $10.00 an hour, and my husband had to find a job that would pay enough to maintain health insurance for our family as well as provide enough income as he maintained the role of the major bread winner. We went from an income of $79,000 to less than $40,000 per year, and that was only after taking one job after another that either did not pay well, provide insurance or eliminate either one of us from more lay-offs. We exhausted our savings, 401K, lost our home to foreclosure, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
I later went to a training school to become a Credentialed Substance Abuse Counselor, where after working for a few months I was injured on the job working with high risk violent clients. I have since had four surgeries to my knee, and have been part of the nightmare of Worker’s Compensation. When a year passed trying to recover from my injuries I decided to go back to college at the age of 48. My husband and I are now renters for many years going from one residence to another either because of landlord problems or non renewal of leases due to owners deciding to sell after we clean, repair and totally restore their deteriorating property.
I am a senior at Stony Brook University pursuing a major in Women’s Studies for my Undergraduate degree. I plan to go ahead to hopefully obtain my Master’s in Social Work/J.D. Law degree. I will be well into my late 50’s by the time I finish where I will have to repay over $100,000 in student loan debt. My hope is to have a better income than my $7.50 an hour present salary as a cashier at a local supermarket, and for my husband and I to be able to eventually again own a home.
With the cost of houses now in the year 2007 this does not look like a reality. What is most important to me is to be in a position to make a difference advocating for men, and especially women, so we have better opportunities available to attain “The American Dream,” and have the dignity to be able to not only care for ourselves, but also to be able to again care for our families.
September 1st, 2007 at 1:05 am
What a truely amazing story. It’s horrible to realize that so many people experience life this way. This story NEEDS to reach out to more people, so that we all can understand, and find the motivation to strive for our owns “Dreams”. Thank you Mrs. Siefert. You and your family are truely amazingly strong people.
September 10th, 2007 at 7:30 am
The only way for the American Dream to resurface in American life is for enough people to finally admit they’re fed up AND be willing to do something about it.
While there seems to be momentum to restructure our outrageously expensive and poorly structured healthcare system, it takes a very long time for the citizens of this country to take to the streets and demand change.
Corporations have been throwing their experienced, skilled, dedicated workers to the streets for nearly 30 years and there’s been barely a whimper.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
I also was at grace Downs-years ago. Paid for myself-and no job followed. I have had a great career-till the corporate mergers of the 80’s–the various jobs, to pay the bills. I am about to leave a second career, a certified alcohol-drug counselor-in less thn a year. I have been able to buy a home, put myself and 2 children through college, after 2 divorces. Just keep on with your dreams, thye will happen. life is a journey with road blocks. Take Care. You will do it.
October 5th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
I can sympathize with you and your husband and my heart goes out to both of you. To be honest, I cringed when I heard that you were planning to go on for either a Master’s degree or even a law degree at your age. But, I was even more shocked to see that you will be well into your late 50’s when you finish your schooling with a debt of $100,000 too. I’ve decided to paste in my story below and let you see where all my schooling got me that I was fortunately able to pay for and not incur any educational debt. Don’t forget, these college loans will follow you for the rest of your life, and even if you declare bankruptcy, they cannot be dismissed. Just something to think about. Here is my story below titled “What Were You Thinking” that was the first story posted on United Professionals:
What Were You Thinking?
My story by Alan King (Darien, CT)
“Everybody is getting fired. I’m telling you thousands of people are losing their jobs. And you know who’s losing — who’s getting it pretty big? My gang! You know what they call a 50-year-old person in a large corporation? Fat!” That is how one middle-age white-collar worker described his situation on the Phil Donahue Show in 1993. Little did I realize that in three years at the age of forty-nine, I would be forced into early retirement too.
It was a beautiful spring morning in 1996 when I lost my second Sales Management position at another IT company within six months after starting my job. Despite being complimented by my boss on my sales, communication, writing and people skills only two weeks earlier, I found myself once again being replaced by a much younger, and less qualified person.
After a year of what seemed like endless letter writing, interviews and rejections, I began to notice something peculiar about the Corporate World and the companies I visited. It seemed that everywhere I went the majority of employees, including my interviewers, appeared much younger than myself. In fact, many looked not much older than my daughter. One day as I sat in the waiting room before my interview, it suddenly occurred to me. Despite looking much younger than my years, I realized that I was that 50-year-old person in a large corporation. “Fat!”
After a discouraging fruitless year of job searching, it became apparent to me that I needed to make a drastic career change, and it wasn’t long before I was heading-off to graduate school to fulfill a life-long dream. I ended up graduating at the top of my class with highest honors after earning both a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing and Master of Fine Arts degree in English & Writing. By now, I was confident that the world of work would be a better place, and that it would embrace me as the university had done years before.
One day an acquaintance of mine who was a full-time researcher for her company told me about a new position opening for a writer, and encouraged me to apply. After reading the company’s job description on their website, I told her I thought I was overqualified. “Nonsense,” she replied, and insisted that I email her my resume ASAP. A month later, our paths crossed again, and I asked her about the position. “Oh,” she said, with an exasperated tone, “You’re overqualified!” By now, it was obvious to me that the term “overqualified” was the favorite euphemism of Corporate America and had become the code word for “You’re too old!”
Still, I was determined not to give-up and accepted an interview with a former senior executive recruiter of a top international job placement firm. He held my two-page resume in front of him with both hands as we sat across from each other around the circular table. After what seemed like an awful long time, he finally laid the resume down and looked-up. “You have very impressive academic credentials,” he said, with a warm smile. We talked for a while and he asked me what was I thinking when I decided to go to graduate school. His demeanor suggested that I had spent all those years in prison. He leaned back in his chair and sighed once again. And then he abruptly asked me, “How old are you?”
Although my first reaction was one of outrage that he would even consider this question, nevertheless, I responded without hesitation. “54″ I said confidently. Several more seconds elapsed and the silence seemed unbearably long.
“Oh!” He continued. Only this time his face appeared strained. Before I could say another word he shot back. “Well, you can forget about going back to corporate. . . you can forget about teaching. . . and you can forget about publishing too.”
Postscript: After unsuccessfully looking for a writing position on-and-off for six-years during a severe recession and following the aftermath of 9/11, like thousands of middle-age white-collar workers today faced with age discrimination, I accepted early retirement in 1996 at the age of forty-nine.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:49 am
It’s a shame that so many of us are living this life. I just wanted to put my two-cents in regarding the education topic.
I graduated in 2000 at the age of 35 with a BS in Computer Information Systems. The only reason I racked up over $60,000 worth of student loans was because I was convinced that I would immediately get a job in the IT field and start making at least $60,000 per year or more.
After submitting 400 resumes and getting only 5 interviews I realized that my degree was getting me no where and I was stuck with a student loan bill that I could not pay. In 2004 I attended my last IT interview and was told by the hiring manager that my skills were already obsolete and I shouldn’t expect to get a job in the IT field.
I am 42 years old now and I am still working in an “administrative assistant” type position making very little money to raise my two children. I tried going back to school for my Master’s degree, but I withdrew because I just couldn’t see spending the $35,000 more when I didn’t even get any results from my Bachelor’s degree.
Experience and education . . . education and experience. It seems that employers always have an excuse why they shouldn’t hire you even when you bring the benefit of maturity to the table.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
The American Dream is finished! The Asian economies are bankrolling American consumerism, and buying up your State year by year!
The great new triumphal call of Thatcher and Reagen in the 1980s for a ‘property-owning democracy’ is dead in the water now! The most severe housing crises are in the USA and UK, with millions living in unfit habitations, ranging from families living in bedsits to multi-occupation households where total strangers rent a bed in a room of five people, a house with 4 bedrooms, having 20 tenants renting a bedspace each at ludicrous prices! Millions of so-called professionals cannot hope to enter the housing market. Public housing stock was sole off to tenants and no additional stock rebuilt to replace it! Hundreds of thousands have been homeless throughout the so-called boom!
And now we have the collapse of core capitalist institutions, banks and property lenders! If you don’t speak out now, we will all be drowned in the tragi-comic farce of THE MAD HATTERS TEA PARTY!
From a UK perspective the situation is only marginally better, and we need to start new lives, new ways of life! There will be little continuity with the last 25 years when we regain our histories, our identities and ourselves!