Thursday, April 05, 2007
Loyal to a fault
Shanna Flowers
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Donald Burnette is a middle-aged man with a bad back and a high school education.
Now, because a corporate bean counter somewhere determined that Burnette's hourly pay of $16.70 was too high, he's also a man with no job.
Burnette, 43, of Roanoke was one of five people laid off from the Circuit City store at Valley View Mall last week when the company announced sweeping, nationwide layoffs. Circuit City fired 3,400 of its better-paid employees.
Retail industry experts called the move unusual. I call it callous. Circuit City will replace the laid-off workers with 3,400 lower-paid new hires in an effort to save $250 million over the next two years, the retailer said.
"What do I do?" asked Burnette, a thick, teddy bear of a man who delivered appliances and TVs for 19 years. He's married and the father of two teen boys, one of them a high school senior headed to college this fall. And he's had three back surgeries.
"I'm 43 years old, not having a proper education. I look at my back. Where do I go to get a job paying 16, 17 dollars an hour?"
Sadly, Burnette's story is familiar. His plight is that of unskilled workers across the country. They are the collateral damage of companies caught in the crunch to remain competitive, withstand global pressure, keep the profit margin high and the investors happy.
He is the victim of a system that values profits over people, that gives no thought as to whether or how it will disrupt families or cause them to lose their homes.
So, as Burnette asked, where does an unskilled, laid-off guy with a bad back and little education go to get back his livelihood?
We hear the question from textile and furniture workers in Southside Virginia each time a company padlocks its plant and ships manufacturing jobs overseas to cheaper laborers.
I see consequences of such calculated corporate decisions in what's left of my economically decimated hometown of Flint, Mich., where auto industry woes shuttered plants and eliminated tens of thousands of jobs.
"Loyalty accounts for very little now," said Robert Spekman, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia. "It used to be if you kept your hand out of the cash register and kept your nose clean, you had a job as long as you wanted."
The concept of a lifetime job is nearly extinct. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American has had 10 jobs by age 38.
"Circuit City needs to be competitive," Spekman said. "This poor guy gets caught. It's a vicious cycle, and it's nothing personal. It's a problem, and I don't see an easy solution."
Granted, retail jobs aren't the union jobs that forged the middle class of the manufacturing age. But as David Carr wrote in The New York Times this week, "increasingly America is a nation of clerks -- not adolescents in their first jobs, but heads of households struggling to get by on the desiccated compensation that working in retail provides. ... Many people work in retail because it is the only work they can find."
Delivering satisfaction
Burnette grew up poor in Gainsboro and wasn't much of a student. He graduated from Patrick Henry High School in 1982. He bounced around in menial jobs until he settled in as a convenience store manager for a few years.
He first worked at Circuit City in 1985 during the Christmas season. He went back three years later full time as a delivery man.
Burnette would arrive at work about 8 o'clock in the morning, set up his route covering a 100-mile radius and call the customers to let them know approximately when he would arrive at their house.
He has a gregarious, know-no-strangers personality. He would immediately put at ease customers whom he realized might initially be fearful of a large, black man coming into their home.
They warmed instantly to him, and he to them.
The elderly woman, who was lonely and just wanted someone to talk to? Burnette would spend extra time talking to her.
The mother distressed because she suspected her son was abusing drugs? Burnette would listen. As a dad, he could identify with her fears.
"My job wasn't to deliver a TV, set it up and leave," said Burnette, who trained three delivery partners during his nearly two decades at Circuit City. "My job was to make sure you were satisfied, you enjoyed Circuit City and make sure you come back.
"It's like I was supposed to do that job. I just enjoyed it that much. The job wasn't about me. It was about making people happy."
But over the years, the job took its toll.
Paying the price
About 1992, after four years with the company, Burnette began experiencing back pain. He developed a bulging disc and had to have an operation.
During his time off, he visited the store and was told -- and saw -- that the two-man delivery operation wasn't going smoothly. So he went to the doctor after only two months and assured him he was ready to go back to work. He got an early release and returned to work.
About six months later, Burnette said he was walking and "felt something pull." He went back under the knife. Two back surgeries within a year. Again, the demands of his employer's business convinced him to cut short his recovery. Again the doctor released him early. Circuit City stopped selling appliances, which lightened Burnette's delivery load somewhat.
He learned to compensate for his bad back and relied on his partners.
By 2000, the constant pain was also in his legs. Steroid injections he received from his doctor were doing no good. The doctor warned him to give up his job or risk being paralyzed.
He underwent one final surgery, an extensive procedure that involved going in through his stomach and putting "spacers" in his spine to keep it from compressing on the nerves causing pain.
I asked Burnette why he kept doing a job that clearly was jeopardizing his health. His response? In a word, loyalty.
"I knew I had a job that was paying me decent money. I saw that as a benefit," answered Burnette, who said he was never interested in switching to a less strenuous job.
A lack of self-confidence steered him away from management training opportunities.
"I have a high school diploma, but I don't have a 12th grade education. This was something I knew I could do right, and do it good.
"I used to tell them, 'Long as y'all take care of me, I'll keep coming back and get it done.' "
'Mr. Circuit City'
For Burnette, the "ride," as he called it, ended a week ago Wednesday.
The manager called him in on his day off and gave him the "separation" letter. It notified him he was being terminated because he made 51 cents or more over the cap of his job. The company didn't reveal the caps, so Burnette doesn't know how far over his pay step he is.
He can reapply for his old job after his severance package of eight weeks of pay runs out. His manager told him he would pay him $12 an hour -- to do the same job he was doing for nearly $17.
Burnette doesn't know what he'll do. He went to a job fair this week, but most of the employers were looking for college graduates.
He and his wife Angela, who works for Elizabeth Arden, are convinced the family will be fine. But the heartlessness with which he and employees across the country were let go eats at Burnette.
He harbors no grudge against his former employer and co-workers. But he bristles at an economic system that calls him 'overpaid' but allowed the head of Circuit City to earn more than $4.5 million (not counting stock options) last year.
"I was dedicated," Burnette said. "Nobody in the house would even think about Best Buy. They called me 'Mr. Circuit City.' "
