In March, Donald Burnette's employer yanked the rug from under him.

Circuit City, the big box-electronic retailer he had devoted 19 years to and had sacrificed his back for, laid him off.

Without warning.

But nine months later, Burnette has found his footing in another job.

The Roanoke man joined Audiotronics in October as a deliveryman. Though he'll always have pain, the job is less taxing on a 44-year-old man who has undergone three back surgeries.

Audiotronics sells entertainment equipment. Because of advances in technology, televisions and stereos aren't as heavy as they used to be.

The work aside, Burnette likes his co-workers. Audiotronics, he said, reminds him of the way Circuit City used to be.

"It's like a family," Burnette said. "I wish I had worked for this company 20 years ago. It's like a family instead of a big corporate setting.

"It's no guarantees, but I feel like this is something I want to be a part of."

Like many Americans, Burnette thought he had a job for life.

The Circuit City job, which paid Burnette $16.70 per hour, allowed him a comfortable living, a beautiful home and a nice car. He was preparing to send his stepson away to college. For Burnette, a guy who grew up in poverty and barely graduated high school, that's American-dream stuff.

"It kind of made me feel like I fit in with the people who went to school. It put me in the ballgame with people I wasn't supposed to be in the ballgame with," Burnette said.

Donald Burnette and co-worker Chris Gray carry video equipment from a warehouse for delivery from Audiotronics where Burnette recently started working.

Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times
But the guy whose fierce loyalty had earned him the nickname "Mr. Circuit City," showed up at work one day last spring and learned that in America's workplace, there are "no guarantees."

In a letter, the retailer informed him that he made 51 cents or more per hour over his position's pay grade.

So it cut him loose, along with four other people at the Roanoke store and 3,395 others across the country, and replaced them with lower-paid workers.

The retailer gave Burnette eight weeks of severance pay. He and his wife got their tax refund shortly after the layoff. They used that to pay the mortgage ahead through the summer.

Right before he was laid off, Burnette sold his sport utility vehicle. Thankfully, he didn't have that payment. The family of four cut back on simple things such as eating out. Income from rental property came in handy, and Burnette collected unemployment.

Financially, he was OK. Emotionally, he was another story. He said he felt numb for the first few weeks.

"I was at a point that I'd never been at in my life. It sunk in that I'm really not going back to this job, a job that I really love."

Burnette said after he lost his job, he received calls and cards from friends and strangers offering encouragement.

Others shared stories of how they or people they knew had suddenly found themselves in a similar predicament.

"It seems like society is going to that. The layoff thing is getting to be an everyday thing with these jobs," he said.

At middle age, Burnette began looking for a new job. He read the classifieds. He didn't even bother to apply for jobs that required more training or education than his high school diploma.

Other jobs paid half of what he had earned and offered no benefits. He put in applications and never heard back. Some employers knew about his back issues from an earlier column that appeared after his layoff.

They asked point-blank: "Can you pass a physical?"

One day during the summer, Burnette happened to meet Matt Hartberger, an owner of Audiotronics.

At the time, Hartberger wasn't necessarily looking for a worker.

But, "I'm always looking for good people," Hartberger said. "His personality got to me."

In October, Burnette became the store's first full-time deliveryman. Previously, store employees would leave the sales floor to help customers take purchases home.

Now Burnette earns $12 an hour and has benefits.

About two weeks after he started at Audiotronics, Burnette received a letter from Circuit City. He thought it was junk mail.

The company that laid him off eight months earlier suddenly wanted him to rejoin the "new Circuit City."

He never considered returning to his former employer, so he didn't call to find out the offer. He assumed that they wanted him back at a substantial pay reduction.

Money isn't the root of Burnette's less-than-charitable feelings for his former employer. His hurt stems from the way the company dismissed him. He said he would have accepted a pay cut, but Circuit City never asked him to take one.

Ironically, the company that was unwilling to pay Burnette $16.70 an hour approved bonuses last week of up to $1 million to retain its top executives. Meanwhile, its sales and stock price have sunk and this year its losses have grown dramatically.

Burnette is happy at Audiotronics, but the cloud of job insecurity hangs over him.

"This is a good company," he said, tempering his comment.

"But who's to say they won't have to cut back?"

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