A Job For Life

At one time you walked out of the school gates and into your first job. If you were a man,or a woman who did not marry or have children, quite often it would be your only job. People either built their careers in the same location or just spent 40 years doing the same thing.

Nowadays it is quite unusual for this to happen, yet two people who I work with have just taken voluntary redundancy/early retirement after spending their entire working lives in the same job.. Although I love the role I have at the moment, I don't think I want to do it until I retire in another 18 years. This is already my 4th job, and I have done it for 12 years.

My first job was a six month scheme, followed by six years in a dead end job that I was glad I finally had the courage to leave. Next was 15 years as a receptionist. I enjoyed that at first, but being around the same people and doing the same thing day in and day out become tiring.

Both of my colleagues were promoted throughout their time here, and their departments role changed partly because of technology and legislation, partly due to changing personnel. They adapted and changed, and made their careers there. At a time when people come and go - including many people who have worked with them for 5 or 10 years and then looked for something else, they rolled with the times and carried on

They could be the last of a dying breed. Changes that will happen over the next five or ten years may make it less and less likely that there will be lifetime jobs. Emigration and the idea that the grass is greener elsewhere make many people move. Technology takes away jobs, and then creates some in a different area,

My next change will probably be my last. At 50 I imagine I will do 10 or 12 years and then look to retire.

I know of people who are still working well into their seventies and don't seem to want to stop. I hope when I am 70 I will be able to do a bit of voluntary work here and there, but don't want to have to get up and go in.

I hope I have the courage and the financial security to leave work while I am still young enough to travel and enjoy myself. Until then I will look for my hopefully final job and get on with it.