Rob:  These days it’s hard not to be consumed with bad economic news.  And while as a state, Oklahoma has done fairly well weathering a bad economy, what’s happening around the nation is still hitting home.  Thousands of Oklahomans have lost their jobs in recent months, while others are just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  But for workers who have already lost a job, they can’t afford to wait, which is why Oklahoma has a rapid response team designed to help people face lay-offs.
Rob:  Well for more than a hundred years, a lumber mill has been the chief employer for Wright City; but no more.  Weyerhauser announced the mill’s closing this month, yet another casualty of a hurting housing market.  A hundred and sixty people out of work.  And it’s those folks Oklahoma’s Employment Security Commission is hoping to help.  Lynda Baird helps run Rapid Response, an employment and training program provided by the state.  Lynda, what is the first thing that you do when you go into one of these companies that is shutting down?
Lynda Baird:  Let them know that, we are there to help them through the transition that they’re going through from job-to-job.  Most people are very afraid right now; they’re in shock a lot of times.  And we try to let them know that we’re there to walk them through everything that they need to know, before and after their last day of their job, and to walk them through opportunities that they could possibly explore, resources that are out there for them, to help them through it, and explain everything, let them ask questions, as many as they want while we’re there, right in front of them.
Rob:  So it’s really that human touch, that sense of just empathy?
Baird:  It is.  Because if you’ve never sat on the other side of that table, where they are, you just don’t know the fear and the anxiety and the unknown factor of it.  Those folks are sitting there wondering, how am I going to put food on the table next week?  How am I going to pay my car bill, my house payment?  Things like that.  And we know that.  We know that’s what they are afraid of, so we try to address ALL of those.
Rob:  This week, the rapid response team met with employees at the lumber mill, helping them answer a question many are undoubtedly asking.  What happens now?
Baird:  Absolutely correct, we have opportunities for them to possibly go back to school, for up to two years, through the dislocated worker program, get their books, tuition and supplies paid for.  I always tell them, this could be an opportunity that may never come along again.  It could be a CareerTech.  It could be a private school, university, so long as in a demand occupation, and we feel like that they can, whenever they get out of school, that they can make a good living out of it.
Rob:  And Oklahoma’s unemployment could get worse, before it gets better.  The state constantly tracks companies that may be laying off workers, or plants that are planning to close.  Oklahoma’s secretary of commerce, Natalie Shirley, says helping those caught in a downsizing helps everyone.
Rob:  I have to believe that it’s important from a larger perspective, that we keep this skilled workforce; they may have lost a job, but we keep this skilled workforce in our state.
Natalie Shirley:  Oh absolutely.  Oklahoma is known around the nation, and indeed around the world, for having a highly skilled, strong work ethic workforce.  And so yes, we do want to keep them here.  But we also want to give them the opportunity to either retrain, or up-train their skills.
Rob:  Explain to me what up-training is?
Shirley:  Well, for example, if you are, let’s just say you’re in the home healthcare industry, and you’ve been working as a nurse’s aide.  Well maybe this is the opportunity that you’ve needed to get your LPN.  Or maybe you’re a machinist working with a lathe, well maybe now it’s time for you to be trained on computers, because lathes are now operated oftentimes with a computer.  So it’s an opportunity to sort of increase your skills in your chosen area of expertise.
Rob:  And while finding a new way to work in Wright City may take time, it’s a job worth doing.  And while you’re dealing with people, probably very stressful times in their life, this has to be a job that is rewarding.
Baird:  It is.  It is at times.  It’s very rewarding.  Every once in a while we do get those people that call us, that just say thank you, and you made such a difference in my life, and I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had you, to walk me through everything that I should have been doing, and not doing.  So it is rewarding.