KAPALUA, Maui — Losing her job was like being blindsided, said Kapalua Land Co. worker Artcherlynn Marzan, five days after she was handed her layoff notice.

"It's like something hitting you from behind. Like a car accident," she told The Maui News on Tuesday.

Marzan, a six-year employee who was training to become a manager at the Kapalua Resort, said she was handed a note Thursday afternoon, told to clear her desk and directed to Tuesday's meeting with state Rapid Response Team officials.

Marzan had mixed feelings as she joined her former co-workers at the informational meeting coordinated by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations for those who lost their jobs with the Kapalua Resort. Officials said around 24 employees showed up at the Kapalua Training Center to hear presentations by labor officials as well as agencies offering help to terminated employees on new jobs, training and benefits.

"I was quite encouraged in coming here," she said after attending the meeting. "It was kind of sad at the same time coming back to the same place they laid me off. I had to fight that fear to come back to this place."

On Thursday, Maui Land & Pineapple Co. began telling its workers it was cutting 274 positions, or about a quarter of its labor force, citing pressure of higher costs of operations and lower revenues. The 46 jobs lost at the resort were immediate, company officials said. Cuts also include 24 positions in the company's community development and corporate offices. The bulk of the jobs, 204, were cut from Maui Pineapple Co., including about 80 contract workers from Pohnpei.

Tuesday's meeting was for resort and corporate employees who received pink slips.

Tyrone Hett, a 24-year employee at the resort, said he was on vacation when he got a call at home that he was being laid off.

Hett, who was reluctant to speak to reporters, said he didn't really expect the layoffs.

"I didn't think it would come like that," he said.

He's been most recently a warehouse employee, but had been on the security staff. He acknowledged he is of retirement age and said he wasn't ready to take any job.

"If an offer is lucrative, I'll take it," he said.

"I don't have any problem with the company," he said, saying he was still going through the "anger part" of losing his job.

"I'm almost done," he said after attending Tuesday's meeting.

Another longtime employee, Ian Swezey, said he's looking for a job in landscaping or facility maintenance.

He joked he's the only Swezey in the phone book and interested employers can call him if they have a job to offer.

A 30-year employee, he said he is taking care of his wife, who just had knee surgery.

The Kahana resident said he doesn't know if he would fit in any jobs offered by members of the Maui Hotel & Lodging Association, which participated in the session.

"I got the list. I haven't looked at it," he said.

A relative newcomer, Jeff Romero, 37, said its easier to accept his layoff at the Kapalua Land Co. than those of the veterans he had worked alongside in the Information Technology section of the company.

"I knew people who were in the company forever," Romero said. "It was sad for them."

Still, Romero said none of them expressed anger out loud during Tuesday's meeting.

"Nobody was mad," Romero said. "Everybody's actually in a good mood. It's like one big family reunion."

Tom Vrbensky, a 16-year concierge for the resort, described his severance package as "good" and expressed confidence that he would be able to obtain another job before his severance pay ran out.

"Everything's going to be OK," he said.

Marzan, 30, of Lahaina, said she is single and doesn't have a family.

"Which is kind of good in a way," she said.

She said she found the meeting helpful and said she might take courses at Maui Community College to pursue another career in business or in hotel management.

"I do have faith in my future," she said.

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