Workers Watch Benefits, Nest Eggs Crumble amid Enron's Collapse.

Byline: Susan Strother Clarke

Jan. 27--Jan Molinell retired two years ago ready for the good life -- a life of freedom, maybe on the open road, where she would see the country from the driver's seat of a motor home.

Yet recently she has felt more like a prisoner, chained to her computer and television, watching $300,000 of her savings disappear in the collapse of Enron Corp.

Hours that Molinell hoped to spend behind the wheel of an RV have instead been spent at the doctor's office. She is being treated for anxiety and high blood pressure -- ailments brought on by stress, she says.

Like other retirees of Florida Gas Transmission Co., which is managed by Enron, Molinell is angry and disgusted -- and a little incredulous that she had worked so hard and long for a company that let her down.

"I was doing without stuff just to have a lot of money in my retirement, where I could come and go as I pleased," said Molinell, 58, who lives in Longwood. The former supervisor faithfully contributed to the Enron 401(k) retirement plan -- but had put much of her money in company stock.

Molinell joins a growing legion of workers and retirees shocked at how closely their financial well-being is tied to the health of their employer.

More than jobs are lost when the boom times end. Savings plans are decimated, and medical benefits are canceled. The collapse of Enron and problems at other companies, such as Polaroid Corp. and Lucent Technologies, underscore the vulnerability of the rank and file.

Bills introduced in Congress would attempt to prevent another debacle like the Enron collapse, in which a majority of retirement-plan assets were held in company stock that has lost 99 percent of its value.

Still, no matter what lawmakers do, many people have learned a harsh lesson: Bad decisions in the boardroom can upend their personal plans.

"I assumed it would be forever. That is what they told us," said Ann Hall, a Deltona retiree,…