Two And A Half Decades With One Employer...To The Day

 The e-mail from my boss's boss reminded me that today marks my work anniversary. I began working for my employer October 6th, 1997.

Twenty-five years.

With the same employer.

The e-mail thanked me for my service--it was a nice gesture,  sending the e-mail was not required or anything like that. That's what makes it nice. We also had a zoom call staff meeting with my team this morning. The first item on the agenda...acknowledging the same thing as was on the e-mail.

It's strange, passing a milestone like this. It's something you think about from time to time, something you recall when a co-worker or acquaintance asks how long you've been at the company. It's also rare for a person to remain so long with the same employer. Not like my father's days. 

On a day like today, you also think about all the people you worked with, some still there, others retired or moved on to other employers, some no longer with us on this earth. I remember taking buses and trains to and from the office, working in different locations with different co-workers and supervisors, never having an office but always parking my stuff in a cubicle (once having two people working in the same small cubicle...). I remember the deadlines, the new projects, the office politics, the head games, the joys, the frustrations, the same ol' same ol' and getting up and going back each week.

Work was once a different place for me. I had friends--good friends. We used to do things socially with them and their families. It was so long ago. For a year before covid, I worked at home, no daily interaction with co-workers other than electronic. I sometimes miss those days...I certainly miss those friends. We've gone our separate ways, one (at least that I know of...) has died.

Now that twenty-five has passed, twenty-five years to the day. Time to stop thinking about twenty-five and consider another number, a higher number, some date in the future. If things continue as they have for me for much of the past five years, I'll be getting up and going to work week after week until the day I won't. I'm grateful I've been able to keep the job(s) I've had. So far, all things considered, it's been a pretty good ride.