I have a close relative who celebrated her 15th anniversary at her company last Wednesday. They called her in and gave her a watch, a nice bonus check, and took her picture with the company President. (Because it’s hard to find good, long-term employees, right?)
The next day they laid her off.
Now she is very worried that her 15 years spent fine-tuning her skills for her very particular job has left her with a well defined job set for a position that nobody else needs. I told her that anyone who overlooks a 15-year commitment to a single employer is very near-sighted. In today’s job market when people flip jobs faster than they update their iPod I believe there are many employers who would like to be able to hire a new employee, and have them stay with the company longer than their introductory training session.
