How Long?
- Posted by Shaun on November 9th, 2006 filed in Junk drawer, Work
- 2 Comments »
At work today I rode the elevator with a woman I’ve seen before, but never really spoke with. She’s a nice woman and is always happy and goes out of her way to say hi when she passes you in the hall.
She asked me which floor I was going to (2nd floor (yeah I know one floor and I’m taking the elevator, making my way to the stairs will take three times as long)). Then she says, “I remember now. I remember seeing you before on the second floor.”
Me, “Yes.”
Her, “I always think of that section of the building as new. I’ve been here a long time.” She is referring to the IS department and it’s at least 10 years old!
Me, “Uh huh.”
Her, “I’ve been working here 37 years.”
Me, “<gulp>”. Then we walk away.
Thirty-seven years working at the same place. Wow! It still gets to me when I hear how long a person has been at the same job. I used to think that 15 or 20 years at a place was a long time. This woman worked here 37 years and it didn’t look to me like she planned to retire.
The funny thing is that some people have been working for the state even longer. I believe Mike works with at least one person that has been on the job for more than 40 years. Some of them are in there 80′s. I shudder to think that people actually do that voluntarily. Then again, unless things change for the worse I probably will be here for the duration too. As long as our pensions hold out (use bugmenot for a username/password) I’ll be happy.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Hah at my place I had my 5 year anniversary last August and I feel like senior staff!
November 13th, 2006 at 7:46 am
Congrats!
5 years at my old workplace was definitely enough to make you senior staff. 5 years in the same group would mark you as permanent staff.