Mr. Lay,

I wanted to send you a note to say I appreciate the way that you have been handling things.  I have alot of respect for you.  My name is Rebekah Rushing.  I consider myself an Enron grandbaby.  My mother, Helena Payne worked for HNG and then Enron for a total of 24 years.  She was an accounting clerk and retired in April of this year when the accounting group was outsourced.  Going through that process with my mother, was an eye opener for me, however after numerous meetings with her supervisor and the human resources department, I feel comfortable that Enron did a good job of taking care of her in that situation.  Her supervisor even made it possible for her to receive her 25 year grandfather clock.  The one thing that does trouble me is the fact that allot of the people that were around in Enron's beginning that we'll call the worker bee's (the people that you could count to get the job done behind the scenes) have lost alot due to the poor decisions that upper management have made.  My mother along with many others  in her situation were the people that this company could and still can count on, they are loyal to Enron and alot of them had the majority of their 401K invested in Enron stock.  This was the majority of their live savings, they do not have anything to fall back on. In my mother's case (as is the case with many other retired or soon to be retired Enron employees) she lost $300,000 in her 401K and only had a little over $400,000 in it to begin with.  I work with a lady that has been with Enron for 23 years and was looking forward to retiring within the next 5-6 years, but now she's not sure if she'll be able to, because she too lost alot in her 401K.  I realize that it's been said many times, a 401K is not a sure thing but the people that I'm referring to had been around for a long time, knew the track record of Enron, and showed their loyalty to the company.   The second thing that concerns me is that this same group of employees have the possibility of being faced with looking for a job.  Most of them are 50 years or older and have been with this company for many years.  They've survived all the different reorganizations because they've had great work ethic.  They weren't always the most 'innovative', but they've always been the most loyal and dependable.  Instead of their dream of retiring, they're now faced with the possibility of having to find another job.  Interviewing will not be as easy for them, because in some cases, they haven't had to interview for another company in quite some time.  I know the politically correct statement is that they will not be discriminated against because of their age, however statistics show that in some cases when a hiring supervisor has a younger candidate and a more mature candidate (45+), they usually will select the younger candidate.  They wouldn't admit to discrimination of age, but it does happen.

These are the people that my heart goes out to.  I wish that there was some way that these loyal and dedicated employees could be taken care of.  I admire you for your decision to waive your rights to the provision that you would have received.  I realize that everyone has lost something due to the events that have occurred, I just wish there was a way that the generation ahead of me that has been with Enron  could recoop a portion of what they've lost.  It the least that they deserve.     

Thank you for your time.


Rebekah Rushing (rebekah.rushing@enron.com)
Enron Principal Investments
713-853-3273 - phone
713-646-8010 - fax