thanksgiving. >>> laid off workers from mervyns are wondering if they will ever see back benefits. but executives will reap their own benefits. anna werner is following the mervyns story. >> reporter: meet the people though made mervyns mervyns. >> it was a great feeling. >> it never occurred to me that we wouldn't be here. >> reporter: they worked as buyers, managers and analysts at a place they say wasn't just a job. >> it was like a community, like a family. >> reporter: where they stayed for decades. >> 24. >> 34. >> 36 years. >> mervyns had a clientele and customer and staff that were family-friendly. >> reporter: but usf professor eugene muscat says all that changed when mervyns was sold. >> it wasn't purchased to be continued as a family operation. >> reporter: muscat says that's because private equity if he remembers bought the company, then split off the real estate, essentially renting the stores back to mervyns, something he says made it tough for those stores to >> that meant that those store managers were now carrying a much higher burden and had to work that much harder to be able to make the stores profitable and it was a very slippery slope. >> reporter: mervyns slid into bankruptcy. now they're out of business. how diu all feel when the word came down? >> devastated. >> socked in the stomach. >> it's something i truly believed in. >> reporter: for these employees another shock was coming. their vacation pay is held up in the bankruptcy how much money roughly? >> about 21,000. >> just short of 20,000. >> with 12. >> reporter: and randy need his $5,000 now. >> i cashed in my 401(k) yesterday to try to make it through the next three months. >> reporter: how do you feel about that? >> pretty devastating, depressing at times. it's hard. >> reporter: they may get the money eventually. but only if mervyns makes as much as executives hope it will in those going out of business sales. >> i'll be surprised if there's anything left. >> i feel cheated. >> reporter: and the job hunt, meanwhile, is tough. >> you sit there trying to get jobs all day and you try to stay positive for your interviews, but we're competing against each other as well as all the other people. >> i've only worked at mervyns. >> i started there when i was 18. i'm already kind of living paycheck to paycheck. it's just so scary. >> reporter: we first interviewed jackie in october. a few days after she got laid off. >> jackie, how is your job search going? >> pretty painful. there's not a lot out there. >> reporter: for some of mervyns executives, it's different. some already have new and bankruptcy court documents show the executives who stayed to finish out the business will get their vacation pay, individual totals of $30,000, $37,000 and $60,000, plus bonuses the most to the chief financial officer, 2 $12,000. >> whoa. >> 2 $12,000. >> reporter: how are you this morning? >> good. >> reporter: that's cfo david robson who we tried to ask about the employee situation. >> i can't, i'm sorry. can' >> reporter: and a moment later with a smile, he was gone. the professor says for many top executives it's a simple equation. >> i'm not being sympathetic. but i am being realistic. i think if they were to answer for themselves they said we are going to stay and do the very, very best for the company but in return for that we expect something for ourselves. >> reporter: a reality maybe. but to former mervyns employees, an ugly one. >> the little guys are always left holding and that is wrong. >> reporter: california labor department is investigating whether there were possible violations of the warren act. they are supposed to keep employees layoff notices 60 days. >> maybe what's most frightening is that future inemployment nrs we're looking at these types of folks, middle class. >> reporter: i asked all these people, what class do you