Sunday, Sep. 06, 2009

Plan B: Woman finds perfect job fit after 25-year career ends

Marla Klopmeyer has endured her share of life's sucker punches.

Her mother died of a heart attack when she was 2, prompting her and her father to live with her maternal grandparents. Her first marriage ended in divorce, and she was treated for breast cancer in 2006.

Then A.G. Edwards, her employer for 25 years, announced her position would be eliminated as a result of its merger with Wachovia.

"I thought I was going to retire in that job," said Marla, 57, of Troy. "I thought I was going to die in that job. I thought, 'I'll die at my desk, and hopefully someone will notice.'"

The energetic redhead was in no way ready to quit, convinced she and her husband, Ken, a retired pipefitter, would drive each other crazy cooped up at home.

But Marla wondered who would hire her in a tight job market full of fresh young talent. Ken also had doubts.

"The experience I knew she had," he said. "But I was worried about her age."

Today, Marla is living proof that change can be good, even when it's forced on you.

She has a new job in the employee-benefits department at Furniture Brands International in Clayton, Mo. She even got a substantial raise.

"Marla was able to hit the ground running because of her background, and that's exactly what we needed," said her supervisor, Linda Calliott, manager of benefits administration.

Marla graduated from Triad High School in 1970. She attended Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for two years, got married and went to work.

Finishing school didn't seem as important in those days, especially for women.

"Today, if you don't have a college degree, don't bother to look for any professional job," Marla said. "And (a degree) doesn't even guarantee you get a job. It just gets you in the door."

Marla worked for three insurance companies before the last one closed its St. Louis office and sent her packing in 1983.

By then a single mother, she landed a job in the employee-benefits department at A.G. Edwards brokerage firm, headquartered in St. Louis.

"I didn't even know who they were," she said. "I didn't know what they did."

Marla received several promotions while the company grew from about 5,000 to 18,000 employees. She ended up as a senior benefits specialist and the go-to person for regional and branch managers all over the country.

Employees in her department became close. They went through weddings, divorces, illnesses, funerals, graduations and other life experiences together.

"You knew everybody's kids and their family situations," Marla said. "We depended on each other."

That made the news in December of 2007 even worse. A.G. Edwards and Wachovia would merge, closing the benefits department in St. Louis the following September.

Employees got severance packages based on years of service, if they stayed to the end.

"(Knowing about the layoff in advance) was good and bad," Marla said. "You kept dreading it. It was like, 'Oh my God, I've only got six months left. What am I going to do?'"

Marla consulted online job-hunting sites and classified ads. She applied for about 15 positions and had a couple of phone interviews but no offers.

Plan B was blindly contacting large companies with St. Louis offices. That's how she learned about Furniture Brands, which owns Broyhill, Drexel Heritage, Lane and 14 other brands.

The company just happened to be implementing a new employee-benefits and payroll system that Marla already had used.

"She was the perfect fit for us at the time," Calliott said.

Marla left A.G. Edwards on a Tuesday and started her new job the following Monday, leading to jokes about her "three-day-retirement."

Marla remains sympathetic with other displaced workers but insists they have reason to be hopeful.

"The right job comes at the right time," she said. "Being a breast-cancer survivor, I just think that what people consider hardship and trying times ... They're lessons for us as human beings. They make us stronger. You never know (where) life is going to lead."