Las Vegas NowI-Team: Downturn Takes Human Face

I-Team: Downturn Takes Human Face

Another walk to another job -- a nightly ritual Vira Deines wants to end. Her exhausted feet have been carrying tired legs for eight long hours and there's another job to go.

This is Vira Deines' Friday, Saturday and Sunday and it's been that way for four months, "I can feel now, oh my God, I got to slow down here. I don't know how long I'm going to survive."

One job dealing at Binion's from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m and it's time for job two, "I got to get there, change my outfit, just clean up my makeup, do my hair, just quick snack."

From downtown, it's fighting construction traffic and a few Vegas tourists just to get to Planet Hollywood by 9 p.m. for more card dealing. A quick walk to the elevator and it's eight more hours.

"Then I get home, five in the morning, and I work again at 11. So that's my sleep time -- three, four hours," she said.

Finally, when the sun is up we catch up with Vira, "I don't like this lifestyle, but I have to do it right now."

Vira went from solid 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. construction work assisting project managers in an office or on the job site. Then layoffs hit a year ago. She came so close to a job at Echelon, but the project halted.

Now during the days it's picking up her son Talfryn from school before a couple of snacks and getting ready for job three -- Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at Kona Grill.

"Three part time jobs. Not easy."

Vira has to cobble together this schedule to make ends meet. Bosses tell her there aren't full time positions. That means three jobs and no health insurance, "For them, that's good. For us, still I don't have benefits right now. So it's scary, actually."

Talfryn is on his dad's health insurance and stays with him on the weekends. That frees Vira up for her double shifts and four hours of sleep a night. Nearly 80 hours a week of exhausted feet carrying tired legs with no end in sight.

Vira said she's looking into jobs at Aliante or Encore, but things haven't panned out. What she really wants is for construction to pick back up again.

That job at Echelon really could have helped. Now it's back to the juggling act of three jobs and being a single mom.