Posted on 12/02/2003 10:16:18 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Two years ago today it all came crashing down at Enron Corp. Two years and one week ago Brandon Rigney saw bankruptcy coming, so he quit his job as Enron's Web master. Rather than look for work right away, he began building an online bulletin board to help the 4,500 people who would soon be jobless. Rigney's Web site, 1400smith.com, named for the address of the company's headquarters, became an invaluable tool for the ex-Enron community and those still there, a way to network and stay in touch. Last Thursday, 1400smith.com vanished from the Internet, because Rigney did not renew his Web hosting license. The site was barely being used anymore, he explained, and he felt it was time to move on. So it is for many former Enron employees. They are over the shock of losing what once seemed like dream jobs and seeing their formerly hefty retirement packages become worthless. Most of them are back on their feet, even as questions swirl around the company. The nearly 2-year-old criminal investigation by the Justice Department's Enron Task Force is ongoing. And, so far, there have been 27 charges filed, involving everything from alleged fraud to insider trading. The first criminal trial is expected to be the Feb. 10 case against Lea Fastow, a former Enron employee and wife of ex-CFO Andrew Fastow. No criminal charges have been filed to date against former Chairman Ken Lay or former CEO Jeff Skilling. If they will be indicted, it will likely be in the next few months. The two giant would-be civil class-action cases on behalf of shareholders and former employees are moving toward class certification and possible 2005 trial dates. Enron is a shadow of its former self. The company once boasted more than 20,000 employees worldwide, including 7,000 in Houston. Now about 12,000 remain, with 1,200 in Houston. The company has submitted a plan of reorganization to its bankruptcy court that is little more than a liquidation. The sole remnant of the company will be shares of stock in two new holding companies created for its pipelines and select international energy assets that will be distributed to creditors. Everything else will be auctioned for cash to be distributed to creditors after the plan is approved sometime in 2004. Many current employees will likely keep their jobs, albeit without the Enron corporate logo. Two years ago, when so many lost their jobs simultaneously, finding something new in Houston was extremely tough. Rigney, the former host of 1400smith.com, believes a great number of people left Houston, and many went back to school to earn additional degrees. "Of those that stayed in Houston, I think they initially had big problems finding work," he said. One laid-off Enron worker, Mike Boutcher, decided to go back to where he started. He had left his beloved hometown of Burlington, Wis., to work at Enron, because the financial opportunity and excitement surrounding the Houston-based company was too much to pass up. He would work at Enron for only 18 months. Soon after he lost his job there as a power reliability manager, he, his wife and five children faced possible eviction from their Houston home. After his story was published in the Chronicle and aired on television, help from the community poured in. "It was almost embarrassing the amount of support we got," Boutcher said, "certainly humbling." "Every day we opened up the mail, we'd get letters with checks," he said, and members of his Clear Lake church, St. Bernadette, gave him a pickup truck. A businessman phoned Boutcher and invited him to his office to chat. He gave Boutcher a check for $10,000. He used the money from the businessman, who did not want publicity, to pay off debt and tide his family over until he found work. The Boutchers decided to move back to Burlington because the Houston job market was so difficult. Pulling a U-Haul, they arrived Dec. 28. The temperature was minus-5 degrees and much colder with the wind chill factor. They no longer had gloves and heavy coats -- they had gotten rid of them when they moved to Texas. His children felt homesick for Houston, "but my wife and I knew we were living on borrowed time," Boutcher said. "What we had in the truck and in our pockets was just about all we had." They rented a house in their old neighborhood, and Boutcher called around for work. His old boss at Commonwealth Edison had an opening, but it was a position for which Boutcher had no experience -- designing a distribution facility to connect new customers to the ComEd system -- but the former supervisor knew his work ethic and hired him. Boutcher has since been promoted three times, and is now making about what he made at Enron. He's learned that what matters most professionally is being around "like-minded people with definite goals and opportunities for advancement. I had those at Enron, too," he said, but the culture is different at ComEd. "At Enron, money was more important than anything. Here, I work more to accomplish things, and the money is secondary." He said that receiving so much help from Houstonians and having ComEd take him back, "regrounded me for what's important for me and my family. "My wife and I sit up most nights, after the kids have gone to bed, and talk about our day. You'd be surprised how many times we'll note that one of the kids had said how they miss everyone in Houston, and how they'd like to go back. "I don't think any of that's going to go away," Boutcher said. "The experience down there was so great -- even with the collapse of everything." Rigney, the 1400smith.com founder, now lives in San Francisco where he does free-lance work in Web design, user interface design and corporate identity. He recalled how, two years ago, his Web site took off instantly. During his last week at Enron, when he realized the company's collapse was imminent, he told colleagues about his fledgling 1400smith.com, and they went to all 41 floors of the building to spread the word. More than 2,000 people signed up on it, even before the layoffs, and eventually 7,000 current and former Enron employees signed on. Last year, when Rigney moved to San Francisco, he hoped that all the talk of Enron was behind him. He soon learned, however, that Enron was quite the subject of conversation in California. It was "a focal point of rage," he said, because many Californians blamed Enron for the state's energy problems. In San Francisco, Rigney has been freelancing for 15 months and things are finally looking up, he said. He's begun to make a living. He recently decided to give up the Enron site, he said, because usage dropped to less than 1 percent of its peak activity. Last Saturday afternoon, he tried calling up 1400smith.com and for the first time got the message, "The Web site cannot be found." "Yep," he said, "it's gone." Chronicle reporters Eric Berger and Mary Flood contributed to this story.
More wind being taking out of the Dems sails.
What were the keys to Mr. Boutchers success?
A strong work ethic, a return to a firm foundation of friends and the generosity of some well meaning friends/neighbors.
No government asistance required, beyond probable unemployment insurance (which he paid for through his taxes).
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