50 YEARS At The One Company

Dave discovered an old collegue that's been at his first job Pacific Communications for 50 YEARS!
Can anyone beat that? Can anyone imagine that these days?

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#ElectronicsCreators

[PetraKann]

Care to explain how working at Maccas is unprofessional?

[lfowkes]

Next March I will hit 45 years with my company. It is a tool and die manufacturing company that has been owned by the same family since it was founded in the late 50's. Our lowest seniority person has more then 25 years, they have always treated us very well and people just tend to stay.

[theondono]

I think it speaks volumes about the average current manager mindset that this is becoming more and more rare, and I think it's a big contributing factor to the decline in productivity.

Back in the day good companies had people with *LOTS* of domain specific knowledge, that knew the company products top to bottom, and knew what strings to pull to get things done.

I've seen companies "retry" approaches that were flawed in some very technically obscure way, just because there wasn't anyone left able to articulate why it didn't work the last time.

[davidgustafik]

Honestly, I'd love to stay at a single company or organisation for 50+ years - it would mean that I'd be content there. I stayed at my previous job for 16 years, left due to several combined reasons, but still have fond memories.

[JeppoTheWrecker]

We had someone just retire after 54 years of service where I work. Currently I am only at 36 years and at this stage I am only planning for 40 years ( which is still a long time).

[whitelined]

I did a short stint at Jacobs engineering. Every month they'd send an email congratulating people on their work anniversaries, and there were a few 50 years..think there might have even been on 60

[cjs]

My aunt works for a library, and has been there for now 52 years. Started in 1971. And she's showing no signs of retiring, , at 77 years old!

[IanScottJohnston]

21yrs for me from aged was like a hobby I got paid it!

[poormanselectronicsbench]

I had almost 42 until my retirement at one company. Starting out as a cable splicing tech at Illinois Bell at the age of 18 back in 1978, I was able to keep employment through the "Bell System Breakup" in the early 80's, then, I was working for Ameritech, then, SBC, or Southwestern Bell Corp, then, AT&T was allowed to gobble them all back up. Over the years, I was able to transition from working in pits, backyard terminal installations, manholes and pole mounted cables, terminal and network boxes ( known as "SAI"'s, or "Serving Area Interfaces"), to installation and maintenance of the electronic equipment that the demands of "newer, faster, better" required. My job was still fairly demanding a the end, needing to work on ladders to install some equipment, remove & install strings of batteries weighing over 100 lbs apiece, as well as up to 400+ pound configurations of rack mounted power system equipment, and generally run around like a chicken without a head when being dispatched on equipment failure / service outage issues, including connecting portable or towable generators to equipment during power outages. The whole time though, Illinois Bell was still the company that provided my W2 for taxes, lol. I could not mentally, or physically kept that job for another 8 years, as the times have surely changed.

[heathwellsNZ]

I am coming up 32 years at the same employer... in fact the ONLY employer (and job) I've had. I left school and went to Uni... and after my first year got a "summer job" which I have been at ever since... longest summer job ever!

[jamesc]

Well done for acknowledging Co and hats off to him for his length of service. I am 34 years currently with one company. Mandatory retirement age where I am is now 60 so its not possible to achieve a 50 year service tenure. In fact, I am surprised how many restructures I have survived. The corporate world started changing about 20 years ago, restructuring every 5 years is considered normal for a corporate these days and the higher up you go, the less likely you are to be retained over a long period. Engineering and coding roles seem to fair well however.

[oddjob]

Your videos are always good Dave, no matter what it is, I get sucked into your story telling!

[ElectricEvan]

I used to work in a hospital research lab run by two academic institutions. I quit this job back in 2022 after 13 years but the guy I was working with was there at least 55 years. He might be up to 60 years now. At 20 years they give you a "Harvard Captains Chair" at 40 they give you a "Harvard Rocking Chair" which to me is like "hint hint please leave". We had a lady who worked in dietary she was +50 years as well.

[daver]

I work at a power semiconductor fab in the UK, we had a bloke retire recently who'd been with the company 50 years, and there's quite a few people here done 20, 30 + years :)

[explorewithgeoff]

I get very nostalgic about places I used to visit/work/hang out at. Unfortunately both the training centre building and the 1930s building I worked at for 15 years are both gone, replaced with modern boxy buildings. So no sign of any history. They made stuff in the war too and there was lots of old stuff still there related to that. Now it's all gone. I HATE change, I admit it! Cheers Dave.

[JSMCPN]

These days, it's hard to find a company to work for that will even exist for 50 years. I've never been fired, never been laid off, but I have worked for 2 companies that went belly-up. At least they kept everyone until the last possible moment.

[prengineer]

5 years was my best; I get bored and want to try new things. I work in IT primarily. 2-4 years is considered completely normal.

[grimmtrousers]

Think there is still a PAC Com in Canberra. Mainly a wholesaler now

[mce_AU]

Can't beat 50 years, but I worked in the same company from the start of the 1980s to retirement in September 2021. 41.5 odd years.

[jeroenontour]

I only have to look at my dad to know that 50+ years is possible. As a 16 year old boy he started as an electrician and never left the company. Only ones a new owner and a couple of years back the son of the boss became the lead. With the age of 67 my dad retired and was still working for 1 or 2 days a week until this year.