The longevity of his employment is likely a result of the company's willingness to promote him instead of hiring externally, despite his start at the entry level. This is not likely to happen anymore, at least nowadays.<p>From the article: "After getting his first position as a shipping assistant, Walter showed outstanding skills and willingness to learn, always doing more than expected. [...] Shortly after, he was promoted to a position in sales. Then, he became a successful Sales Manager."<p>I once spoke with a professional baker who started off as a machine operator for a bakery in his late teens, then earned promotion to become a production supervisor and then distribution manager. He then moved companies to become a plant manager, and later an operations director involved in baking formulation, until becoming an account manager (sales) for large baking firms.<p>The commonality between these stories is that loyalty and hard work at a job has historically enabled people to earn a good quality of life. Nowadays, it intuitively seems like internal promotions from the very entry level are harder to come by, as many firms prefer to hire people with degrees for management or hire externally.<p>Instead of promoting internally like in the past, I read and heard from managers they prefer to recruit externally for management positions. They perceive that internal candidates lack "leadership qualities" from past interactions with them, and/or perceive that they produce more value in their current positions. When asked how they account for these people changing jobs for promotions to lead elsewhere, the response was that they would say they understood the former employees' positions and would wish them well (without openly reconsidering whether they were under-weighing the value of internal promotion).
That's quite an achievement, and I'm even more impressed he was able to do so in the textile industry that suffered so much in the mid-nineties in the region.<p>Context: I'm from the Itajaí Valley (where Brusque is located), which has a strong textile industry - one of the main drivers of the local economy. It used to be much stronger until the disastrous Collor government caused a number of them to go bankrupt or severely reduce their production due to some serious mismanagement of the Brazilian economy.<p>Edit: His original employment contract can be found here (in Portuguese, a bit difficult to read): <a href="https://www.brusquememoria.com.br/acervo-imagem/2057" rel="nofollow">https://www.brusquememoria.com.br/acervo-imagem/2057</a>
> Walter broke his own record set in 2019 with 81 years and 85 days.<p>So not <i>exactly</i> news... still impressive, and some quotes worth considering:<p>> Walter believes that the best part about having a job is that it gives you a sense of purpose, commitment and a routine.<p>> He comments that the best professional advice he can give is to try to work for a good company and in an area where you feel motivated.<p>> "I don’t do much planning, nor care much about tomorrow. All I care about is that tomorrow will be another day in which I will wake up, get up, exercise and go to work; you need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future. Here and now is what counts. So, let’s go to work!"<p>An Eckhart Tolle fan? :)
I understand why some people might find this achievement positively impressive. The article also describes this mister as happy and in a good health.<p>It reminds me of how sad I find the idea of working 84 years. This is the paroxysm of how humans are trained and educated to <i>work</i>.
Irving Kahn is another example of someone who worked, I believe, until he died at 109. Famous investor, was a TA in Ben Graham's course when Buffett was a student (the latter is now 91), and worked in fund management from 1928 (good timing) until 2015 (87 years in all)...but not at the same company.<p>Not everyone finds themselves in the kind of job that they are happy to do through old age, but it is nice to see when it happens.
What astounds me, is not the time spent at the company but how much change and advancement he saw along the way. I'm not old enough to have experienced the absence of internet, smoking in offices, manually switched phone exchanges, no digital mail, fully manual processes, etc.<p>What an incredible amount of change to witness. I just get to see a continuous rollout of technical solutions to mostly questions not asked or understood :/
> "I don’t do much planning, nor care much about tomorrow. All I care about is that tomorrow will be another day in which I will wake up, get up, exercise and go to work; you need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future. Here and now is what counts. So, let’s go to work!"<p>That's something I want to do but find it extremely hard to do.
While this is obviously a way-way outlier, 10-25 years is not that rare (including in more traditional technology companies) and I'm not really sure 2-3 years is the norm in a lot of places.
> On 17 January 1938, Walter Orthmann started work as a shipping assistant when he was fifteen years old at a textile company in Santa Catarina<p>Hard to wrap your head around someone working at the same place from before 2. world war. Both him and his employer must have been quite good at adapting to a changing business landscape.
OK, I dunno if I can top that. Definitely not. But...<p>I went to work for Bell Labs in 1978 after getting MSEE,<p>then went to work for a start up with a bunch of Labs buddies about 5 years later<p>that company got bought out by one of the "baby Bells" that went on a spending spree of acquisitions after the break up of ma bell, they bridged my service as if I had never left, hey, thank you very much !<p>then, a few years later I went to work for another startup working on this new cool technology you may have heard of "cellular" wireless phones duh. K, again, guess what, airtouch bought us out, they bridged my service again, hey thank you very much dudes.<p>Then, (tired of this yet) after working for those dolts for a while I left and went to work for another start up which will go nameless but has to do with fiber stuff. Those guys got bought out by the Big V company, they bridged my service again ! thank you very much again (tons of vaca time).<p>I have worked for, but my count 5 different companies and yet, never lost a day of service! 44 years and counting.<p>So anyone out there who would like to get bought out by a big company, simply hire me and they will buy you to get me back. Probably, I am thinking that has to be it. right ? it's all about me :)
I have a couple coworkers that are up there but not quite to his level.<p>1 is a machinist started in 1962 and is half retired. Comes in Monday - Wednesday from 7am-11am.
The other is sales and works a full 40 hour week. Started in 1960.
Am I the only one who notices that for a centanarian, he looks in a good shape. And I'm not talking health-wise but also mental-wise. You could tell from his posture, demeanor and gleam of his eyes that his mental capacity has not been dimmered by old age
This year I left my previous employer with 15 and a half years of service <i>shudder</i> I can't imagine having worked another single day for them, let alone 84 years.
That's a record very unlikely to be broken anytime soon. Starting working before 18 is becoming more and more uncommon and staying at the same company is definitely unfashionable nowadays...
1st picture there's a typewriter.<p>And why not.<p>(I sometimes think we threw the baby out with the bath water.)<p>He needs to make a shipping label. No problem. No computer. No printer. No special labels.