Same Crisis, Different Voices: Typical Wall Street Workers Lose Jobs, Not Hope

The Charity Worker

As the economy headed south, Emory Edwards helped his church plan seminars for those who had recently lost their jobs. He didn't think he'd be one of them.

Edwards, 46, was the transportation director of City Harvest, a nonprofit organization that delivers excess food from restaurants and other businesses to food programs for the New York City's poor.

The organization relies heavily on individual and company donations from Wall Street. As the financial crisis progressed, the donations dried up and, early this month, Edwards found himself "restructured" out of his job.

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At first, the experience devastated him. The week after he was laid off, Edwards said, he was so upset he didn't want to leave the house. He was also frustrated with the crisis that ultimately led to his job loss.

"I think there are so many people who took advantage of so many other people," he said. "Most of the financial markets were playing with money that didn't belong to them, investments by working people, people saving for retirement."

But Edwards hasn't had much time to stew. After that first tough week, he jumped into a job search. By his third week of unemployment he had already had an interview and attended one of the career sessions that he had helped plan at his church.

"A lot of advice I'd gotten was to take some time and pull back and I just didn't feel that I was able to do that," he said. "It's a rough market. I have financial concerns, I have other concerns that really I want to address quickly."

For now, Edwards says he can get by for a while on his wife's income -- she works in information technology at a law firm -- and on the couple's savings, some of which are tied up in mutual funds. Cashing out his mutual fund investments, Edwards said, means he'll be taking a substantial loss. But, he said, he may not have the luxury of waiting for the funds to rebound.

"You can't get hung up on the current values necessarily, if you need the money," he said.

Although he's anxious, Edwards said he's optimistic about finding new work.

He credits the career session, which was led by psychologist Michael Bednarski and held at New York's Trinity Church near Wall Street, with helping him understand the best ways to reach out to contacts and seek career advice.

"I really did not jump into networking opportunities with both feet until after that session," he said. "One thing I was concerned about, I didn't want to approach friends or contacts from a position of need. [Bednarski] was very good at giving non-threatening ways of doing that."

Edwards says he has called or e-mailed about 50 people, asking for career advice.

"People aren't really promising jobs," he said, "but I've gotten very positive reactions."