United States of Work

Building financial stability, one Lego brick at a time

Maria Hollenhorst Jun 1, 2023
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At a retailer specializing in Lego toys, Neil Cairns found a sense of purpose. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
United States of Work

Building financial stability, one Lego brick at a time

Maria Hollenhorst Jun 1, 2023
Heard on:
At a retailer specializing in Lego toys, Neil Cairns found a sense of purpose. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Three years ago, Neil Cairns was one of 20 million people laid off in the initial wave of the pandemic, struggling to make ends meet after the bar he worked in closed down. 

Neil Cairns, a man with stubble and shoulder-length brown hair, wears a white and gray baseball tee with its sleeves rolled up to the elbow and a black apron that has a blue LEGO logo on it, which reads "Bricks & Minifigs." He is smiling for the camera and standing near a display of LEGO toys and figures in the toy shop he manages.
Cairns working at Bricks & Minifigs, a Lego retailer in Portland, Oregon. (Courtesy Cairns)

Since then, he’s had a number of jobs, including bartending in an Irish pub, digitizing documents and working in pest control. But now, as manager of a Bricks & Minifigs franchise, which sells new and used Lego products, he’s finally earning a reliable salary. 

“I left the Navy in 2013, and this is the first salaried position that I’ve had,” Cairns said. “The only thing that’s been this stable for me has been my disability payments from [Veterans Affairs].”

But Cairns has found something beyond that in his new role at Bricks & Minifigs: a sense of purpose. “We do workshops here in the shop every weekend,” he said. “And getting to see kids … learn new things and develop interests that are going to be lifelong passions has got to be the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done.”

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