I'm neck-deep in work on an important project but I couldn't resist the pull of the touching story of Carlos Araya, an ex-crude oil trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange who used to order lobster, filet mignon and $200 bottles of red wine at the Palm Restaurant in midtown Manhattan, but who now seats customers as a host at its Tribeca branch. Here are excerpts from Mary Pilon's WSJ report on Mr. Araya:
Mr. Araya, 38 years old, lost his job in 2007 as a crude oil trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange. After visiting dozens of headhunters with no luck, he applied in August 2008 to be a host at the Palm to support his wife, two young daughters and mortgage payments. His salary has plunged from $200,000 to $25,000.
If the financial crisis was the flood, then the Arayas are one of the families standing in the stagnant waters left behind. Some former Wall Street employees, highly trained and accustomed to comfortable salaries, are having trouble translating their specialized skills to other fields that pay well, and instead find themselves forced to accept low-wage work. Now, Mr. Araya is on the brink of losing it all and is doubtful that he will ever return to Wall Street.
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Nowadays, during Mr. Araya's late nights at the Palm, reminders of his old life crop up when former colleagues come in. Some are encouraging and offer hugs. Others sneer, he says. "The way they look at you, you know they're thinking negatively," he says. Some are laid-off like him, and ask if the restaurant is hiring.
As a host, Mr. Araya wears a suit and tie. He's on his feet most of the day, either escorting guests to tables or manning the podium at the front, answering phone calls, managing reservations on the computer and fielding orders from wait staff and managers.
Although he's thankful for the work at the Palm, paydays can be bittersweet. "At the end of the week, I get my paycheck," he says, "and I think, 'I used to make this much in a day.' "
I don't know Mr. Araya but I can emphatize with him. While nothing short of getting back the job and life he used to have will bring back his lost self-esteem, he could at least console himself with thought that he is not alone in this predicament.
At an abstract level, his story is instructive as a cautionary tale. It demonstrates--quite rudely--just how fragile life could be. We could literally lose everything we have patiently and painstakingly worked for in an instant.
The Arayas have reluctantly embraced what I would call a "crisis lifestyle" so they could stretch every dollar they have saved, and yet they have started to miss their mortgage payment. Is foreclosure and bankruptcy far behind?
It's an awful thought, I know, but that's how the cookie crumbles. We should pray for them as well as for us, that we may be spared from bitter lessons of life like this, for which we can never be too ready.
(Photo credit: Google Images)
2 comments:
Im curious - didn't he save at all? or he must have used up all his savings, since he was out of work since 2007
That was a courageous and humbling thing for him to do
Hi, Francis. He did save, but at the same time he lived an affluent lifestyle whhen the going was good. That was where most of his money went.
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