Laid-Off County Workers Merit Civility

In (last Sunday’s paper) there were three letters to the editor titled “Treat All Layoffs as Human Tragedies” regarding the feature of 50 laid-off Orange County employees.

I resented the fact that only opinions that criticized The Times’ coverage appeared. The fact that these were employees who served the public makes it of public interest. They provided public services that affected Orange County residents one way or another. Layoffs negatively impact both those who get laid off and those “survivors” who are left behind to carry the load in a changed organization.

I disagree that all layoffs are tragedies. A few of those stories you printed were uplifting examples of how people take the event as an opportunity to improve their careers. The problem lies in the fact that many public sector jobs are very specialized, and it is hard to find comparable employment without moving to another county (with most public entities affected) or state and that is a formidable problem for families. That is not the case when the job skills used in the public sector are marketable in the private sector.

It would be nice if Orange County employees were not treated as people who do not have insight about the realities of life--and having to welcome them to the “real world,” as one letter writer put it. Some of them, like me, went through layoffs from the private sector before starting to work for the county. And no one should have to face indignation by strangers from the pages of a newspaper. Hopefully, my comments are helpful to further mutual understanding.

RITA HINTLIAN

Huntington Beach