WASHINGTON COUNTY — The orders from corporate headquarters were bleak and gave Nancy Reeder almost no choice: Cut expenses by 70 percent and do it now.

Reeder, for 18 years the boss at Clean Earth of Maryland Inc.'s recycling operation at 1469 Oak Ridge Place near Funkstown, had "never had to lay off a worker, so that was something I really struggled with."

Her decision, effective the last week of February, divided Clean Earth's three office and nine production employees into two teams - each week, while one team works, the other is laid off.

And vice versa, week after week.

"It's a serious hardship for them, but it was the fairest and the less traumatic way," Reeder said. "It allowed everyone to continue to accrue vacation and personal days, as well as have access to their medical, dental, 401(k) and flexible spending accounts."

In the meantime, Reeder said, her four salaried workers - an engineer and three managers - volunteered and each are working close to 20 extra hours per week without pay to help fill in and keep the business going.

Reeder said the company's salaried workers have offered to give up 10 percent of their base pay, as she has done.

"They've offered to work those 20 hours extra a week, and take a pay cut," she said. "The engineer is still doing his main job, but he is also doing yard inspections. All three of the other managers take turns pulling samples of loads from trucks, inspecting them to be sure it is what we were told it was going to be."

"And, they are also running the street sweeper," making sure any mud that the trucks drop is cleaned off the road leading to Clean Earth's operations, she said.

The business, known here as Clean Rock Industries until about five years ago, is permitted by Maryland to treat petroleum-contaminated soil and reuse it. The company also crushes rock, concrete, cinder block and other such rubble into a mixed material for use on farm lanes and driveways, in road paving and as a road base for concrete or asphalt.

"We finished 2008 fairly strong, but early 2009 has seen a 70 percent decrease in sales volume" throughout Clean Earth's parent company, Reeder said.

She said she's optimistic the crisis is short-term "and that we can return to normal in the next six or eight weeks."

Until then though, "everyone who is working is working twice as hard as they normally would," she said. "They're having to work as a team and truly pick up the slack and do anything that needs to be done. They've been wonderful to each other."

Many people across the country, and locally, are making some sacrifices to keep their jobs.

Or know someone who is.

In conversation by the coffeepot, at church or out on the street, you hear of a friend, a neighbor or a spouse whose benefits have been suspended, whose workweek has been cut or whose pay has been reduced as the nation's recession deepens.

Yet, again and again, as word of the sacrifices spread, so, too, are the stories of people pulling together, determined to make it through.

An overwhelming response

As president of Brooke Grove Foundation, Keith Gibb has to make a lot of choices affecting his 200 employees at Williamsport Retirement Village and 300 others at retiree care facilities elsewhere.

But few decisions have been as difficult as the cuts that had to be made after Maryland, itself hurt by the recession, eliminated $300,000 in Medicaid reimbursements to the nonprofit foundation.

"Our strategic planning committee looked at everything we could do and realized fairly quickly that we could not do that without affecting our labor," Gibb said. "So we talked about our values - and loyalty and longevity are part of that. And we made the decision to ask our employees, in lieu of what would have been about 15 lost jobs in our organizations, to take a pay cut, across the board."

Several of what the company calls "town meetings" were held at the foundation's work sites in Williamsport and Sandy Spring, Md., and in Meyersdale, Pa., said Michel Ochoa, Brooke's director of human resources.

Gibb, who has worked at the foundation since 1975, led every meeting, reading a letter explaining the situation and the proposed action to the employees.

"We asked everyone to take a 2 1/4 percent pay cut," Gibb said. "And the leadership team - anyone who was on the committee who voted for the cut - took a 3 1/4 percent pay cut. We thought it was important for the people who voted it to lead."

The employees' reaction was unexpected.

"In one location, they actually stood up and applauded, if you can actually imagine people being asked to take a pay cut doing that," Gibb said. "It was extraordinary.

"It was very difficult, but it was probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my career because of the employees' response."

Ochoa, who also is a member of the leadership team, said she was emotionally overcome by the response.

"It was very overwhelming in that everybody was very supportive," she said. "I don't think any of us anticipated what reaction we would get.

"Of course, we thought no one would be happy. But our employees seemed to really understand the reason behind it. I think a lot of people had felt it through their spouses, other family members, friends who were actually losing their jobs or cutting back their workweek.

"What was felt the most was a feeling of togetherness, a feeling of 'together, we can overcome this, we can keep our jobs.' It was a very familial feeling. That was inspiring."

Gibb said he doesn't know how long the pay cuts will be necessary. He said the leadership team will meet again in June and decide, based on the situation.

But he said he never will lose the feelings he gained from his employees' reaction.

"Very rewarding, very humbling," he said. "Makes you want to work even harder to get this thing right. ... It's just almost like church, at this point, the spirit of it all."

Sharing the pain

If there's something John Barr isn't doing to find work in this slack economy for his 200 electrical contracting employees, it's hard to imagine what that could be.

"Obviously, it's very difficult to find work, let alone profit work," said Barr, who owns Ellsworth Electric Inc. in Hagerstown and Chambersburg, Pa. "We keep bidding things, if we hear anything. Lot of times, there's no response. People just aren't moving forward with the estimate."

With little work to be had, bidders are sharpening their pricing pencils more and more, Barr said.

"We're to the point we're so sharp, it's through the paper," he said.

Since the economic downturn began, Ellsworth has laid off seven or eight employees, stopped overtime work and "we're asking guys to pick up the pace as far as productivity," Barr said.

But even contracts the company has landed aren't always secure.

Take, for instance, the nearly $5 million deal Ellsworth had helping build a big expansion a company wanted at its Frederick, Md., operation, Barr said. Suddenly, several weeks ago, that company decided to shut down the project, he said.

"They just walked in and shut it down, packaged it up and we're walking away from it," Barr said. "So, we had eight to 10 men, all of a sudden nothing to do. It's pretty tough when you think you have work for now and the future and, out of the blue, a customer like that says, 'We're ceasing.'"

So now, Barr said, he's stretched his company's territory out as much as 100 miles, "beating our trucks and employees to death" taking a job, for instance, in Tysons Corner, Va.

He said Ellsworth even is bidding on a small commercial project that "we'd never have gone after a year ago." One of its competitors for the work is "a two-man outfit," driven from the residential market because jobs have so dried up there, he said.

Barr said every effort is toward the goal of keeping his employees working, even as he is trying to maintain their pay levels and benefits.

"We've not taken anything away from anybody. We've not taken any benefits. I wouldn't say 'never,' but it's against my moral principles" to do otherwise, he said.

"We may have to cut back in hours, but to tell somebody they're worth 10 percent less in base salary and benefits" isn't acceptable, he said.

So Barr's push to keep everyone busy has reached a new extreme.

"We have some guys doing what we call 'honey-dos' - painting, working up at my church pro bono," he said. "I mean, the guys are getting paid, but I'm doing free work for the church."

Barr said he even has sent workers to the family farm, "building fence, just to keep busy."

The workers are appreciative that they still are working, he said.

Barr is determined to keep them busy.

"We're a strong company," he said. "We're not debt-ridden, so that's going to help us get through this. We're all going to share in the pain and extra hours, harder work."

To try to lift his crews' spirits, Barr said, he's been meeting with managers and workers.

"I just said, 'Fellows, look, we're doing everything we can. Please bear with us. Don't grump at us when you're asked to go do a honey-do at the farm. We're going to make it. We've been around for 82 years. Hook or crook, we're going to survive this thing.'"

When will the hard times end?

"My goal right now, what I'm personally telling everybody, is that those of us that are still operating and in business next April 2010 will still be survivors of downturn, recession, depression, whatever you want to tag this," he said.

Tightening the belt

From his office over at Maryland Paper Co.'s big plant off Elliott Parkway near Williamsport, the financial picture actually looks more manageable these days to company President and CEO Mathew Chakola.

"The worst is over," Chakola said. "2006, 2007 were worse years" than now because of the sudden drop in demand for the recycled roofing felt the company makes for the construction industry.

"2007 was a nightmare year for us. Then, 2008, things started kind of stabilizing. And 2009, so far, we have done almost the same or a tad better," he said.

"That is mainly because many of our competition has disappeared," as victims of the economic downturn, he said. For Maryland Paper, a key to survival was "tightening the belt" early, he said.

The company, which has 59 employees, is "still in belt-tightening mode," Chakola said. It hasn't replaced workers who have quit and it limits overtime work "because the uncertainty is still hanging over us," he said.

But the company also hasn't cut salaries or asked workers to take unpaid leave, Chakola said. And recently, when workers' insurance costs rose 21 percent, the company absorbed the entire increase, he said.

"We are all a team," he said.

While his own company works hard, Chakola said he takes offense at companies that want a federal handout, and at the government for its willingness to give away money.

"You go and ask your grandmother or grandfather about today's depression and what they went through in the Depression. They say this (bailout) is a joke. The system's become like welfare," he said.