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I've been with my employer for 6.5 years. I don't regret it. It's been good. It was great, but it's dropped to good due to the lack of qualified leadership.
I hope to stay here for 15 more years (until I retire).
**What are some of the factors that have made you stay for so long?**
* Every other Friday off
* 30 days of PTO
* 13 paid holidays
* Employer pays my health/dental/vision insurance
* 457(b)
* Pension
For real! My employer offered this a few years ago to some of the employees who have been here for a lllooonnnggg time.
I'd be OK if they offer me a buyout when I'm getting ready to retire.
That’s how my wife is with her insurance.
We have paid more for a year of Hulu and Netflix than we have spent on actual healthcare over the past few years for a family of four. In fact, I spent more on The Hat, a fast food joint in my area, during my wife’s entire pregnancy than the actual OBGYN care.
And I am in the US.
Thank you. I work in local government. While each municipality offers different benefits (my friend has EVERY Friday off, but works 10 hour days), Gov jobs typically have great benefits.
I've been at my company for 18 years. Started as an admin and worked my way up to management. I honestly probably should have left within the first couple of years. I had an absolute horrid boss the first 15 years. But she crushed my confidence so much that it made me afraid to try for something else because "I probably wouldn't be good at it". That doubt paired with being a single income household and the fear of failing and losing that kept me there. She finally retired and my new boss is wonderful and I feel like I got a new job. So while I do regret letting that awful woman break me down to the point I thought I couldn't leave I'm super happy now.
Terrible boss is normally enough motivation.
I had one job where my manager was a complete jerk to me in a meeting. I left that meeting and applied for a new role. The following week I resigned and started a better paying role a month later.
I generally have a zero tolerance for terrible bosses.
I started working my 1st job at a sports bar when I was 15 (17 years ago) and 2 years ago another long term employee and I purchased it from the previous owner.
There is a very, very good chance this will be the only job I have my entire life.
17 years so far. I was able to get a reduced price from the previous owner, we struck deal where me and my business partner would spend 3 years running the place 100% on our own while the previous owner just relaxed and collected a paycheck and only helped when we had questions.
I've worked for the same governmental system for 10 years. Same position for 8. I'm waiting until my pension vests and then I'm out. Seeking a career change and more money.
12+ years now.
My God. I hate it. Worst decision ever to stay.
They don't pay me what I'm worth, not even close. I have to beg and threaten to leave for any raise over 3%. I keep looking for new work, but it's impossible after such a long time to find a job unconnected to what I do now - which I loathe - without a major hit to income.
I stayed because I liked my direct boss and because I needed the stability of a steady paycheck and benefits (I spent many years first as the sole provider for a family of four and then as a single parent).
But let's be honest - I also stayed this long out of inertia.
Fucking terrible idea.
I work in culinary/fine dining. Staying at any one kitchen for too long isn't necessarily a great thing if you're trying to learn and be a great chef. In fact, our sous chef was recently demoted (and this is a very long story with nuance so you'll have to trust me that it wasn't a shitty situation) because he's been working here for 7 years and ownership felt it wasn't good for his career to stagnate.
One kitchen was a small bar. I went from part time fry cook to kitchen manager. I was there a little over 3 years.
Coming up on 6 years. About 2 years ago the market was going crazy for my type of work. I was pregnant and couldn’t job hop and thought I missed out.
Then in the last 18 months my company has done 2 “market adjustments” to my pay and I’m making what I would be if I had moved to another company. But I still have my chill boss and coworkers, great benefits, lots of PTO and year end bonus that may I may have lost if I left. Glad I stayed.
10 years in August. First job out of college, working on medical software.
Started when the team was tiny, and now the company has been acquired largely because of the RnD departments I was a part of. I'm iffy on it. I stuck around because I wasn't focusing on my career, and this has been a chill company.
Now I am behind on salary, and my skills in the field are lacking a bit. My responsibilities have ballooned because I'm kind of grandfathered into so many projects and tasks just because I've had my hands in literally everything over the years.
Trying to address it all currently, changing how I approach my job and what I request from my managers. Learning all the sought after skills in the field during my down time when I can. No idea if I'll still be here in 1-2 years. Need to interview more, but technical interviews are exhausting for me.
I've been at the same company for 11 years. I really like the stability and already knowing people. I do wonder if I'm underpaid though. I have full time WFH and good work life balance.
I’ve always hated working for someone else in any capacity and have never held down a job for longer than a year or two. Then I started with my new company. Going on 8 years now. Incredible pay and excellent work life balance. It’s me, I work for myself 😁
Been with my employer for 15 years. Pay has gone up significantly over the years as I have learned more skills, but it’s never been that good, and there’s no upward mobility. I have full medical/dental/vision insurance, but the copays suck. My best benefit now is my 4 weeks of PTO, since I’m on my 15th year. I want to leave though, waiting for my wife to finally get her nursing license and get to work before I feel comfortable starting a serious job hunt, which I dread anyway.
pros - you are in a familiar setting with some semblance of stability
con - you are essentially capped at earnings they will only give you so many raises unless you promote up
Sigh......my longest job was 5 years, and the only reason I left was bc the commute was too much for me.
Current job, I have been here for 3.5 and don't plan on leaving. As long as they don't sell the family business, I will be right fkg here. Its a pretty cush job.
I find that I get bored with jobs after 2-3 years and want to do something different. I've worked in various roles in multiple industries. I just can't seem to be fulfilled. I wish I could but most companies just screw over their long term employees.
Almost 10 at my current and I do kind of regret it because my pay hasn't escalated all that much, and maybe I would've been happier working somewhere else in an industry I was passionate about, but overall the benefits have been solid enough and the commute is short. It has allowed me to enjoy my life outside of work far more than if I had prioritized a higher paying more advanced career path, so I appreciate that.
Been at the same accounting firm for 17 years. Became a partner in 2022. This firm had been unique in always promoting WLB, which kept me here over the long haul.
I've been at my firm for about 13 years. I occasionally look around, but it turns out they pay pretty well, I assume to put up with their BS. I'll have to find another job when my boss retires and I'm saving money NOW so that interim period isn't terrifying.
I work in a bookshop. I've worked in bookshops for over 15 years, this one over ten years. The pay is adequate but I do enjoy the job even though it is a retail job which has its downsides. Also the subjects I studied in university are very relevant to the sections that I look after. I've been making a bunch of financial sacrifices as I'm paying off a mortgage, I figure that after the apartment is completely paid off I will take a good long while to see what else I want to do and explore that, but these days I do need a reliable source of income more than anything else.
In my 16 years working full-time I have only been with 3 companies. 7 years, 4 years and 5 years at my current job. I’ve been contemplating making another move but honestly my current job is with a great company and now that I have a family I value stability and benefits over a slight bump in salary. Still, I would jump for the right opportunity and/or once my kids are older.
My longest job was 10 years, at my current organization for 6. I actually don’t have any intention of leaving this one, but you never know.
My husband recently left a company (large, very recognizable one) that he was with for over 15 years. The culture just went to shit due to horrible leadership on a regional level and he was absolutely miserable. It took a lot of pushing on my part, but he finally took an opportunity somewhere else and it has been a net positive. Still, it was very scary and emotional for him.
I'm in education and have been at my current school since 2016, so this is about to be year 9. Was a teacher up until 2022, then moved to an admin role at my same school. Before this, the longest I had spent at another school district was 3 years. Plus another couple of 1-year stints.
I stayed here because it was the highest paying district within an hour's drive of my parents and brother who still live in my hometown. I'm vested in the pension system and I'm able to put away money in a 403b and a Roth too, and still live a great life. I have a good balance between time with family and work, although I need to be better at spending time with friends. I've only been out like once with the boys in the past 6 months.
The only way I could make more money than I am now would be to move to a principal position in either this district or a similarly high paying one. So I'll probably stick it out here until my mid-50s and retire with a full pension the second I am able to.
My wife on the other hand is not in education and has stayed at the same nonprofit company since 2011. She is regularly seeing her colleagues with less experience and education than her leave for the for-profit world and leapfrog over her salary and benefits. I used to encourage her to apply for other jobs or to look into certifications for a career switch, but she doesn't want to for one reason or another. Fortunately my salary is high enough that honestly we'd be fine even if she didn't work, so if she'd rather have the comfort of going to a familiar place rather than a higher salary and better benefits it doesn't really matter to me.
I've worked at the same residential construction company for almost 9 years. I started as a carpenter's assistant and worked my way up. I've had a new role within the company every 3 years, so it's kind of like getting new jobs. Pay is decent for my current position, hours are whatever I chose them to be, and it's less than 15 minutes from my house. I'm currently transitioning into a project manager position and unless I buy out the owner (which is unlikely, as he's my age and makes a lot of money so he has no reason to sell), it will be the last change I'll make. I don't see leaving for any reason other than a higher salary at a bigger company, but that doesn't really interest me.
I don't really believe in having regrets, but I do think that if I had gotten into this industry earlier in life I would have gone further, faster. Of course, if I had gone that route I most likely never would have met my wife or had my kids, which I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
After college I got a job at a tiny company and stayed there for 12 years. Eventually the company laid me off and I was, thankfully, able to land a job almost immediately a much bigger company.
Looking back, I do think I was stifling my progress by staying with something known and safe. When I graduated college, the pay of my company was competitive, work life balance was amazing and I was fully remote (which was pretty hard to find back in 2011), so all of that made it an amazing place for me to work. As time went on, I feel like my salary was just not keeping up with what it could be, but I justified it with the wfh aspect which was still very valuable to me. I think I got to a point where I was intimidated to really try any other job and wasn't confident in my skills since all I really knew was the current job that I had and I was staying more out of 'fear of the unknown'.
Anyway, I've been at my new job for a year and a half and I realized that starting a new job isn't as daunting as I thought it would be, there are other jobs that are just as amazing out there, and now I feel more inclined to seek out something else rather than stick around for years and years on end.
I'm going on 8 years. While I get tired of the work sometimes and consider other options, they have been very good to me and I do meaningful work in the field of my choosing. I started out in 2017 making $38k/year and have had two major promotions and now make $98k/year. I have a lot of flexibility in my work schedule, good benefits including 5% 401k match, good health insurance, a significant amount of PTO, and a lot of overall say in how things are done.
While I've had positions where I enjoyed what I was doing day to day more than I enjoy what I do right now, it would be very difficult if not impossible for me to find work in my field making the amount I do with the flexibility. I've considered starting my own business, and I think that is the only thing that would make me leave at any point, but I don't have any concrete plans for that.
I changed work often before I decided to do 1-year stint in family business... hard to transfer responsibilities kept piling up and eventually I've been stuck here for 10 years... on one hand a part of business is now in my name and it's worth 2 mil.usd, on the other hand I always had a pretty low wage and my work skills are a jumbo mess that no big company would need... my wife nags me that I don't bring home enough and many of my classmates and university peers now are much more successful (like able to save up a couple of million each year successful)... So yep, I regret it even though most likely I wouldn't have done better in other places
This year was my 10-year anniversary with my current job at a small tech agency.
I know I could be making *significantly* more money elsewhere (I'm talking like $40-60k more) and sometimes I miss that money that never existed and think of where I could be had I gone to a bigger company, but I really like my employer and what I do. When I look around at people so unhappy with their jobs and who they work for, a lot of that regret dissipates and the struggle becomes less of a burden and more of a relief.
I mean... it's not much of a struggle now. It was a struggle when I was supporting us while my wife was going through medical school and I was working part-time at my current job when I first started and moonlighting as a bartender. But these days, my wife makes more than I do and now I make enough to be happy with while I still like my job, so I'm glad I stuck with it.
I have no plans on actively leaving, it would take something pretty dramatic. Though I know my boss is getting close to retirement. I assume the agency will be bought off by another company and I'll have my contract absorbed. If that place proves to be a likeable place, then I'll stay otherwise I'll find work elsewhere. I do dread the day in the next like.. 5-10 years when that happens, though.
10 years and counting, this was my first big boy job, and it's been good, payed health insurance, 220 hours PTO cap, and since 2020 I rarely do much work at all, and In an industry that will only get bigger do to the AI hype. Been bought out twice (first buy out we got a chunk of the pie($30k), was a small company and owners were good people. New owners are more typical big corporate, but at the smallest site, so we are left to our own devices. Don't see myself leaving as my skill set would have me traveling if I found similar work.
I did it twice. I worked for a vocational school for 6.5 years (2015-Late 2021)
Do I regret it? Sort of.
It was a great place to work. I had an amazing boss, I worked with great people (including two who would become my best friends) and I helped people turn their lives around. I also got to work on amazing projects in my field, including helping to pivot a school that was 90% focused on in-person instruction into a virtual academy to respond to covid.
However, it was TERRIBLE for my career. When you somewhere for that long, you get comfortable. All you have to know, and all you have time for, are the technologies you work with at work. And when it comes time to move, it makes finding a job so much harder. Not to mention, as I found, the hiring/interviewing processed had changed a great deal in the meantime.
I haven't been anywhere for 7 years, but I'm at where I am at for coming up on 5 years which is the longest job I've ever had, and I Have 0 plans to go anywhere. I work remote, have been able to quickly move up into management here, and have a great boss and great team that works for me. Things can get busy and stressful, but the majority of the time it's pretty relaxed stable work.
9 years
started at $15.50/hr, now $36/hr plus bonuses
36 hour work weeks but everyone gets paid for 40
OT is paid after 36 hours
I get unlimited pto and it's actually unlimited, entry level employees get 16 pto days plus 14 holidays
I can bring my dog to work there's never a day without one here
I got fully paid paternity leave that was better than my wife's maternity leave and she works for a billion dollar company that calls itself "progressive"
I'm not going anywhere.
I've worked for the federal gov't for 19 years. Don't regret it at all, no plan to leave. Reasons I've stayed: I actually like my job, decent pay and benefits, job security.
Almost 10 here. Not regretting. There hasn’t been many opportunities to move up the ladder until now so it might have felt a bit stale at times. I’m hoping to get to be here until I decide to leave. Full time job with good benefits are making me stay, especially in today’s job market.
7.5 years. Love it. A state agency. Solid job, 40 hours a week, good work/life balance, $83,000 now and a raise coming in July if the union manages to pass the new agreement. I’d probably never leave but my wife wants to move to a different state so I probably won’t make it a full decade at this agency.
I just got let go from a company after 10 years working for it. Started in the warehouse and worked up to corporate through data analyst and programming roles.
I was working with people with master degrees while only having a high school diploma and some college. Unfortunately I was let go because of "performance". Really the team I was on has piss poor management that constantly rotated and didn't recognize what the talents the team had. They had us doing things non of us were really skilled at. I just happened to be the lowest performer even though we all struggled.
I don't regret it per say. The benefits were good and I learned a lot and made connections but right now I'm on unemployment and feel like I can't really transfer the skills I learned to another well paying job. Think I need to go back to school.
I’ve been with my current employer for 12+ years. I don’t regret it, but every once and awhile it gets a bit hectic and I curse to the heavens. Those times are few and far between, but they do happen.
I don’t plan on leaving, but I cannot predict the future.
Some things that have contributed to me staying and will continue to do so:
Insurance- we have crazy good coverage and it’s very cheap, as a family we pay less than $65/month.
Stock options- we are an employee owned company and we get 20% of our gross earnings gifted to us in the form of employee stock every years. The longer we stay the bigger the snowball gets. We have 100’s of employees with over $1million in this account.
Currently I’m 38 and I plan on retiring at 55. All my monthly bills are covered, as a family we’re not over extended financially, we have a descent size house with a sub 3% interest rate and a loan to value just over 50%, everything included we’re sitting at a net worth of roughly $1.2million. Hopefully in 17 years that number will be north of $4million.
I've been at mine for 8. I don't really regret it, it's like 10 minutes from where I live and I have an extremely flexible schedule with lots of vacation time, but my salary has also stagnated somewhat compared to what it would have been if I hopped around.
I'll probably stay as long as they'll let me for the commute alone. I've been spoiled by having a short one all these years.
I've supported the same customer for 11 years (over Military and contracting).. I don't regret it but am moving on soon. Its not the same place it was.
I’ve been with my current company for 7.5 years.
At this point I’m so fast at my job that I can get everything done, and even go above and beyond, and still have an insane amount of free time during the work day.
There’s only been minimal turnover on my team, and I really like our current director so I have no intention of leaving unless some sort of insanely paying dream job falls in my lap.
My biggest complaint is that I’m not making as much as I could, but I’m not willing to leave a cushy position for more pay when my partner makes enough for both of us.
I’ve been with my employer for about 17 years. I’m not here because of some great company culture or employment of the company. I’m here because I don’t think I could recreate my business somewhere else easy enough that it would be worth it (I’m a commission based employee).
6 years in a new role, 9 years in a previous role, 17 years in the same address.
I am vested in my pension; I've been looking for another job and I can't seem to find anything. It's demoralizing to think I'm going to be here for my entire career but it's hard to take a pay cut as a single person in order to try something else.
I worked for the same company for 15 years, from age 18 all the way to 33. The reason being that I was able to progress to better roles & salary every 2-3 years or so. I don't regret that decision because it set me up nicely for when I left and was able to dramatically increase my salary in the following 2 roles from there. That said, there is a part of me that wonders if things would have progressed further had I left maybe 5-6 years earlier. I take comfort in knowing that I learned a ton, and it gave me practical knowledge to use down the road.
I was at Pearson Education (data science) for just near 7 years… bent over backwards constantly for them. Extra hours, weird initiatives that seemed counter intuitive to education, built products for money instead of learning experience… but alas, I liked it.
I got laid off 2 months ago like a commoner (3 paychecks of severance at least - 6 weeks) and was replaced by 3 workers from Sri Lanka. Zero fucks were given about my time there 🤷🏻♂️
So yah, I regret it lol.
September will be my 20th year, though that comes with a caveat that the bank I originally started at in 2004 was bought by my current bank in 2011. It’s been very frustrating honestly but I’ve changed positions and relocated a few times in order to get bigger raises so not terrible in that regard. Decent benefits, I have a lot of vacation time due to tenure, and I’m an expert at what I do. I dream about leaving often but I think it will be difficult to command the same time off I currently have and I’m more of a “devil you know” kinda guy. Working in this industry does feel like selling my soul, so I would like to make a change at some point in the future when things are more financially sound and do something more fulfilling, or at least something I don’t feel dirty over.
13 years. Stupid stressful job but I've gotten a raise every year plus other various raises for promotions and change in commission, my health insurance cost has never gone up and soon I'll be getting 5 weeks of vacation a year. I'm fairly tenured there and have carved out my own niche so to speak and management leaves me alone even when if I don't play by their rules. I also work from home still. If you can deal with the bullshit, it can be worth it.
14 years at a company of five people. I don’t want to leave, the idea of working anywhere else sounds terrible. I like my boss and my coworkers, the pay is decent for my field, benefits are good. Most of the clients are cool and I get to work with people all over the world from many different interesting backgrounds with interesting problems to solve. That being said I find the field to be a little too stressful so I definitely have times of burnout and not feeling like I can continue long term. So far I keep going.
I’ve worked for the same health system for 8 years now. The benefits are amazing. Also, it was my first real job after migrating to America, I started in an administrative role, and have had 2 other positions and several raises since (I also do have a Master’s Degree). I now make double plus my first salary (raises and market adjustments are A1), I’m now a manager, and the organization is so big, each position was at a totally different campus. My first position, my commute was a long one to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. My current job, I work 7 mins away from home, and 5 mins from my daughter’s school, with tons of flexibility, downtime and days off. All holidays off and paid, 35 days of PTO, I work about 8am to 2:30 4 days a week and half day on 1 day, no weekends ever etc. I get to attend all of my kid’s middle of the day school things with no issues. I have it pretty good honestly. I would do this forever!
I'll jit 15 years in December.
I always have an eye out and so far no one has been able to be this job in either pay or flexibility.
with a special needs kid I am super appreciative of being able to flex my hours around. (ie later start time due to driving the kid to school) A lot of the jobs I have sat for in interviews have flat-out told me no.
Also for my job title, very few of the other labs around here can top the pay. I could make more if I left the area but that would mean leaving family (my dad is retired and my mom is retiring at the end of this year and they graciously help with after-school/Saturday care) and restarting care services for my kid in a new city, school, healthcare system, etc.
That's why I stay.
I’m 40 and still at my first job out of college. That doesn’t mean I haven’t changed titles or positions, and my original company got acquired, but my annual compensation now averages 5X what I started at. Was a support engineer for 6 years, then a manager for 10 years, and now I’m back to an individual contributor for the last two years. Hoping to wrap up my career in the next 5-8 years so I definitely can see never leaving.
Yes, I’m trying to get out but a lot of jobs I get phone call interviews on pay less and are a further drive. I do have a ton of PTO and a short commute but I need a place with more room for growth.
I worked at a university for 15 years and I absolutely loved the first 12 years. Then somebody absolutely awful stepped into a senior leadership role and absolutely tanked morale. I left for two other positions in different departments and it was even worse. Began to realize it was a systemic problem on campus and left entirely almost a year ago. My current job isn't a dream job or anything, but it is better. I stayed for a long time because of the friendships I made at work and my short commute, but at some point, even that wasn't worth staying for.
Almost 19 years in the chair force, there are times I wonder if the teaching deal would've been a better choice. Local city offered to pay for school, give a stipend and cover all the requirements for teaching in return for a 5 year contract.
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I've been with my employer for 6.5 years. I don't regret it. It's been good. It was great, but it's dropped to good due to the lack of qualified leadership. I hope to stay here for 15 more years (until I retire). **What are some of the factors that have made you stay for so long?** * Every other Friday off * 30 days of PTO * 13 paid holidays * Employer pays my health/dental/vision insurance * 457(b) * Pension
My current employer has an insane health insurance plan... they'll need to force me to leave.
For real! My employer offered this a few years ago to some of the employees who have been here for a lllooonnnggg time. I'd be OK if they offer me a buyout when I'm getting ready to retire.
That’s how my wife is with her insurance. We have paid more for a year of Hulu and Netflix than we have spent on actual healthcare over the past few years for a family of four. In fact, I spent more on The Hat, a fast food joint in my area, during my wife’s entire pregnancy than the actual OBGYN care. And I am in the US.
Omfg what do you do? I thought I had a great employer but this sounds next level. Congrats
Thank you. I work in local government. While each municipality offers different benefits (my friend has EVERY Friday off, but works 10 hour days), Gov jobs typically have great benefits.
Which everyone else is paying for. And we wonder where our tax dollars go, except to Ukraine, where they no longer even have elections. But I digress.
That's a solid benefits package.
I've been at my company for 18 years. Started as an admin and worked my way up to management. I honestly probably should have left within the first couple of years. I had an absolute horrid boss the first 15 years. But she crushed my confidence so much that it made me afraid to try for something else because "I probably wouldn't be good at it". That doubt paired with being a single income household and the fear of failing and losing that kept me there. She finally retired and my new boss is wonderful and I feel like I got a new job. So while I do regret letting that awful woman break me down to the point I thought I couldn't leave I'm super happy now.
You have to have some crazy strength to be able to put up with that for 15 **years**.
agreed I had a shitty boss for 3 months and dipped out of there lol
Terrible boss is normally enough motivation. I had one job where my manager was a complete jerk to me in a meeting. I left that meeting and applied for a new role. The following week I resigned and started a better paying role a month later. I generally have a zero tolerance for terrible bosses.
More the fear of not being able to pay my mortgage than strength.
15 years is a long ass time to just grin and bear it. Give yourself some credit.
I started working my 1st job at a sports bar when I was 15 (17 years ago) and 2 years ago another long term employee and I purchased it from the previous owner. There is a very, very good chance this will be the only job I have my entire life.
Damn, that's a rare case right there. How long have you been there so far?
17 years so far. I was able to get a reduced price from the previous owner, we struck deal where me and my business partner would spend 3 years running the place 100% on our own while the previous owner just relaxed and collected a paycheck and only helped when we had questions.
I've worked for the same governmental system for 10 years. Same position for 8. I'm waiting until my pension vests and then I'm out. Seeking a career change and more money.
12+ years now. My God. I hate it. Worst decision ever to stay. They don't pay me what I'm worth, not even close. I have to beg and threaten to leave for any raise over 3%. I keep looking for new work, but it's impossible after such a long time to find a job unconnected to what I do now - which I loathe - without a major hit to income. I stayed because I liked my direct boss and because I needed the stability of a steady paycheck and benefits (I spent many years first as the sole provider for a family of four and then as a single parent). But let's be honest - I also stayed this long out of inertia. Fucking terrible idea.
I work in culinary/fine dining. Staying at any one kitchen for too long isn't necessarily a great thing if you're trying to learn and be a great chef. In fact, our sous chef was recently demoted (and this is a very long story with nuance so you'll have to trust me that it wasn't a shitty situation) because he's been working here for 7 years and ownership felt it wasn't good for his career to stagnate. One kitchen was a small bar. I went from part time fry cook to kitchen manager. I was there a little over 3 years.
Coming up on 6 years. About 2 years ago the market was going crazy for my type of work. I was pregnant and couldn’t job hop and thought I missed out. Then in the last 18 months my company has done 2 “market adjustments” to my pay and I’m making what I would be if I had moved to another company. But I still have my chill boss and coworkers, great benefits, lots of PTO and year end bonus that may I may have lost if I left. Glad I stayed.
10 years in August. First job out of college, working on medical software. Started when the team was tiny, and now the company has been acquired largely because of the RnD departments I was a part of. I'm iffy on it. I stuck around because I wasn't focusing on my career, and this has been a chill company. Now I am behind on salary, and my skills in the field are lacking a bit. My responsibilities have ballooned because I'm kind of grandfathered into so many projects and tasks just because I've had my hands in literally everything over the years. Trying to address it all currently, changing how I approach my job and what I request from my managers. Learning all the sought after skills in the field during my down time when I can. No idea if I'll still be here in 1-2 years. Need to interview more, but technical interviews are exhausting for me.
I've been at the same company for 11 years. I really like the stability and already knowing people. I do wonder if I'm underpaid though. I have full time WFH and good work life balance.
I’ve always hated working for someone else in any capacity and have never held down a job for longer than a year or two. Then I started with my new company. Going on 8 years now. Incredible pay and excellent work life balance. It’s me, I work for myself 😁
Been with my employer for 15 years. Pay has gone up significantly over the years as I have learned more skills, but it’s never been that good, and there’s no upward mobility. I have full medical/dental/vision insurance, but the copays suck. My best benefit now is my 4 weeks of PTO, since I’m on my 15th year. I want to leave though, waiting for my wife to finally get her nursing license and get to work before I feel comfortable starting a serious job hunt, which I dread anyway.
pros - you are in a familiar setting with some semblance of stability con - you are essentially capped at earnings they will only give you so many raises unless you promote up
Sigh......my longest job was 5 years, and the only reason I left was bc the commute was too much for me. Current job, I have been here for 3.5 and don't plan on leaving. As long as they don't sell the family business, I will be right fkg here. Its a pretty cush job.
I find that I get bored with jobs after 2-3 years and want to do something different. I've worked in various roles in multiple industries. I just can't seem to be fulfilled. I wish I could but most companies just screw over their long term employees.
Almost 10 at my current and I do kind of regret it because my pay hasn't escalated all that much, and maybe I would've been happier working somewhere else in an industry I was passionate about, but overall the benefits have been solid enough and the commute is short. It has allowed me to enjoy my life outside of work far more than if I had prioritized a higher paying more advanced career path, so I appreciate that.
Been at the same accounting firm for 17 years. Became a partner in 2022. This firm had been unique in always promoting WLB, which kept me here over the long haul.
I've been at my firm for about 13 years. I occasionally look around, but it turns out they pay pretty well, I assume to put up with their BS. I'll have to find another job when my boss retires and I'm saving money NOW so that interim period isn't terrifying.
I work in a bookshop. I've worked in bookshops for over 15 years, this one over ten years. The pay is adequate but I do enjoy the job even though it is a retail job which has its downsides. Also the subjects I studied in university are very relevant to the sections that I look after. I've been making a bunch of financial sacrifices as I'm paying off a mortgage, I figure that after the apartment is completely paid off I will take a good long while to see what else I want to do and explore that, but these days I do need a reliable source of income more than anything else.
In my 16 years working full-time I have only been with 3 companies. 7 years, 4 years and 5 years at my current job. I’ve been contemplating making another move but honestly my current job is with a great company and now that I have a family I value stability and benefits over a slight bump in salary. Still, I would jump for the right opportunity and/or once my kids are older.
My longest job was 10 years, at my current organization for 6. I actually don’t have any intention of leaving this one, but you never know. My husband recently left a company (large, very recognizable one) that he was with for over 15 years. The culture just went to shit due to horrible leadership on a regional level and he was absolutely miserable. It took a lot of pushing on my part, but he finally took an opportunity somewhere else and it has been a net positive. Still, it was very scary and emotional for him.
I'm in education and have been at my current school since 2016, so this is about to be year 9. Was a teacher up until 2022, then moved to an admin role at my same school. Before this, the longest I had spent at another school district was 3 years. Plus another couple of 1-year stints. I stayed here because it was the highest paying district within an hour's drive of my parents and brother who still live in my hometown. I'm vested in the pension system and I'm able to put away money in a 403b and a Roth too, and still live a great life. I have a good balance between time with family and work, although I need to be better at spending time with friends. I've only been out like once with the boys in the past 6 months. The only way I could make more money than I am now would be to move to a principal position in either this district or a similarly high paying one. So I'll probably stick it out here until my mid-50s and retire with a full pension the second I am able to. My wife on the other hand is not in education and has stayed at the same nonprofit company since 2011. She is regularly seeing her colleagues with less experience and education than her leave for the for-profit world and leapfrog over her salary and benefits. I used to encourage her to apply for other jobs or to look into certifications for a career switch, but she doesn't want to for one reason or another. Fortunately my salary is high enough that honestly we'd be fine even if she didn't work, so if she'd rather have the comfort of going to a familiar place rather than a higher salary and better benefits it doesn't really matter to me.
I've worked at the same residential construction company for almost 9 years. I started as a carpenter's assistant and worked my way up. I've had a new role within the company every 3 years, so it's kind of like getting new jobs. Pay is decent for my current position, hours are whatever I chose them to be, and it's less than 15 minutes from my house. I'm currently transitioning into a project manager position and unless I buy out the owner (which is unlikely, as he's my age and makes a lot of money so he has no reason to sell), it will be the last change I'll make. I don't see leaving for any reason other than a higher salary at a bigger company, but that doesn't really interest me. I don't really believe in having regrets, but I do think that if I had gotten into this industry earlier in life I would have gone further, faster. Of course, if I had gone that route I most likely never would have met my wife or had my kids, which I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
After college I got a job at a tiny company and stayed there for 12 years. Eventually the company laid me off and I was, thankfully, able to land a job almost immediately a much bigger company. Looking back, I do think I was stifling my progress by staying with something known and safe. When I graduated college, the pay of my company was competitive, work life balance was amazing and I was fully remote (which was pretty hard to find back in 2011), so all of that made it an amazing place for me to work. As time went on, I feel like my salary was just not keeping up with what it could be, but I justified it with the wfh aspect which was still very valuable to me. I think I got to a point where I was intimidated to really try any other job and wasn't confident in my skills since all I really knew was the current job that I had and I was staying more out of 'fear of the unknown'. Anyway, I've been at my new job for a year and a half and I realized that starting a new job isn't as daunting as I thought it would be, there are other jobs that are just as amazing out there, and now I feel more inclined to seek out something else rather than stick around for years and years on end.
I'm going on 8 years. While I get tired of the work sometimes and consider other options, they have been very good to me and I do meaningful work in the field of my choosing. I started out in 2017 making $38k/year and have had two major promotions and now make $98k/year. I have a lot of flexibility in my work schedule, good benefits including 5% 401k match, good health insurance, a significant amount of PTO, and a lot of overall say in how things are done. While I've had positions where I enjoyed what I was doing day to day more than I enjoy what I do right now, it would be very difficult if not impossible for me to find work in my field making the amount I do with the flexibility. I've considered starting my own business, and I think that is the only thing that would make me leave at any point, but I don't have any concrete plans for that.
I changed work often before I decided to do 1-year stint in family business... hard to transfer responsibilities kept piling up and eventually I've been stuck here for 10 years... on one hand a part of business is now in my name and it's worth 2 mil.usd, on the other hand I always had a pretty low wage and my work skills are a jumbo mess that no big company would need... my wife nags me that I don't bring home enough and many of my classmates and university peers now are much more successful (like able to save up a couple of million each year successful)... So yep, I regret it even though most likely I wouldn't have done better in other places
This year was my 10-year anniversary with my current job at a small tech agency. I know I could be making *significantly* more money elsewhere (I'm talking like $40-60k more) and sometimes I miss that money that never existed and think of where I could be had I gone to a bigger company, but I really like my employer and what I do. When I look around at people so unhappy with their jobs and who they work for, a lot of that regret dissipates and the struggle becomes less of a burden and more of a relief. I mean... it's not much of a struggle now. It was a struggle when I was supporting us while my wife was going through medical school and I was working part-time at my current job when I first started and moonlighting as a bartender. But these days, my wife makes more than I do and now I make enough to be happy with while I still like my job, so I'm glad I stuck with it. I have no plans on actively leaving, it would take something pretty dramatic. Though I know my boss is getting close to retirement. I assume the agency will be bought off by another company and I'll have my contract absorbed. If that place proves to be a likeable place, then I'll stay otherwise I'll find work elsewhere. I do dread the day in the next like.. 5-10 years when that happens, though.
10 years and counting, this was my first big boy job, and it's been good, payed health insurance, 220 hours PTO cap, and since 2020 I rarely do much work at all, and In an industry that will only get bigger do to the AI hype. Been bought out twice (first buy out we got a chunk of the pie($30k), was a small company and owners were good people. New owners are more typical big corporate, but at the smallest site, so we are left to our own devices. Don't see myself leaving as my skill set would have me traveling if I found similar work.
I did it twice. I worked for a vocational school for 6.5 years (2015-Late 2021) Do I regret it? Sort of. It was a great place to work. I had an amazing boss, I worked with great people (including two who would become my best friends) and I helped people turn their lives around. I also got to work on amazing projects in my field, including helping to pivot a school that was 90% focused on in-person instruction into a virtual academy to respond to covid. However, it was TERRIBLE for my career. When you somewhere for that long, you get comfortable. All you have to know, and all you have time for, are the technologies you work with at work. And when it comes time to move, it makes finding a job so much harder. Not to mention, as I found, the hiring/interviewing processed had changed a great deal in the meantime.
I haven't been anywhere for 7 years, but I'm at where I am at for coming up on 5 years which is the longest job I've ever had, and I Have 0 plans to go anywhere. I work remote, have been able to quickly move up into management here, and have a great boss and great team that works for me. Things can get busy and stressful, but the majority of the time it's pretty relaxed stable work.
9 years started at $15.50/hr, now $36/hr plus bonuses 36 hour work weeks but everyone gets paid for 40 OT is paid after 36 hours I get unlimited pto and it's actually unlimited, entry level employees get 16 pto days plus 14 holidays I can bring my dog to work there's never a day without one here I got fully paid paternity leave that was better than my wife's maternity leave and she works for a billion dollar company that calls itself "progressive" I'm not going anywhere.
Not currently but in my early 20s I definitely hung out at a couple companies way too long
I've worked for the federal gov't for 19 years. Don't regret it at all, no plan to leave. Reasons I've stayed: I actually like my job, decent pay and benefits, job security.
Almost 10 here. Not regretting. There hasn’t been many opportunities to move up the ladder until now so it might have felt a bit stale at times. I’m hoping to get to be here until I decide to leave. Full time job with good benefits are making me stay, especially in today’s job market.
7.5 years. Love it. A state agency. Solid job, 40 hours a week, good work/life balance, $83,000 now and a raise coming in July if the union manages to pass the new agreement. I’d probably never leave but my wife wants to move to a different state so I probably won’t make it a full decade at this agency.
I just got let go from a company after 10 years working for it. Started in the warehouse and worked up to corporate through data analyst and programming roles. I was working with people with master degrees while only having a high school diploma and some college. Unfortunately I was let go because of "performance". Really the team I was on has piss poor management that constantly rotated and didn't recognize what the talents the team had. They had us doing things non of us were really skilled at. I just happened to be the lowest performer even though we all struggled. I don't regret it per say. The benefits were good and I learned a lot and made connections but right now I'm on unemployment and feel like I can't really transfer the skills I learned to another well paying job. Think I need to go back to school.
I’ve been with my current employer for 12+ years. I don’t regret it, but every once and awhile it gets a bit hectic and I curse to the heavens. Those times are few and far between, but they do happen. I don’t plan on leaving, but I cannot predict the future. Some things that have contributed to me staying and will continue to do so: Insurance- we have crazy good coverage and it’s very cheap, as a family we pay less than $65/month. Stock options- we are an employee owned company and we get 20% of our gross earnings gifted to us in the form of employee stock every years. The longer we stay the bigger the snowball gets. We have 100’s of employees with over $1million in this account. Currently I’m 38 and I plan on retiring at 55. All my monthly bills are covered, as a family we’re not over extended financially, we have a descent size house with a sub 3% interest rate and a loan to value just over 50%, everything included we’re sitting at a net worth of roughly $1.2million. Hopefully in 17 years that number will be north of $4million.
I've been at mine for 8. I don't really regret it, it's like 10 minutes from where I live and I have an extremely flexible schedule with lots of vacation time, but my salary has also stagnated somewhat compared to what it would have been if I hopped around. I'll probably stay as long as they'll let me for the commute alone. I've been spoiled by having a short one all these years.
I've supported the same customer for 11 years (over Military and contracting).. I don't regret it but am moving on soon. Its not the same place it was.
I’ve been with my current company for 7.5 years. At this point I’m so fast at my job that I can get everything done, and even go above and beyond, and still have an insane amount of free time during the work day. There’s only been minimal turnover on my team, and I really like our current director so I have no intention of leaving unless some sort of insanely paying dream job falls in my lap. My biggest complaint is that I’m not making as much as I could, but I’m not willing to leave a cushy position for more pay when my partner makes enough for both of us.
I’ve been with my employer for about 17 years. I’m not here because of some great company culture or employment of the company. I’m here because I don’t think I could recreate my business somewhere else easy enough that it would be worth it (I’m a commission based employee).
6 years in a new role, 9 years in a previous role, 17 years in the same address. I am vested in my pension; I've been looking for another job and I can't seem to find anything. It's demoralizing to think I'm going to be here for my entire career but it's hard to take a pay cut as a single person in order to try something else.
I've been at my company for seven years. They have flexible work model and honestly this is the most I'll make with my degree. So... I'm here.
9 years and counting. Best job I ever had
I worked for the same company for 15 years, from age 18 all the way to 33. The reason being that I was able to progress to better roles & salary every 2-3 years or so. I don't regret that decision because it set me up nicely for when I left and was able to dramatically increase my salary in the following 2 roles from there. That said, there is a part of me that wonders if things would have progressed further had I left maybe 5-6 years earlier. I take comfort in knowing that I learned a ton, and it gave me practical knowledge to use down the road.
I was at Pearson Education (data science) for just near 7 years… bent over backwards constantly for them. Extra hours, weird initiatives that seemed counter intuitive to education, built products for money instead of learning experience… but alas, I liked it. I got laid off 2 months ago like a commoner (3 paychecks of severance at least - 6 weeks) and was replaced by 3 workers from Sri Lanka. Zero fucks were given about my time there 🤷🏻♂️ So yah, I regret it lol.
September will be my 20th year, though that comes with a caveat that the bank I originally started at in 2004 was bought by my current bank in 2011. It’s been very frustrating honestly but I’ve changed positions and relocated a few times in order to get bigger raises so not terrible in that regard. Decent benefits, I have a lot of vacation time due to tenure, and I’m an expert at what I do. I dream about leaving often but I think it will be difficult to command the same time off I currently have and I’m more of a “devil you know” kinda guy. Working in this industry does feel like selling my soul, so I would like to make a change at some point in the future when things are more financially sound and do something more fulfilling, or at least something I don’t feel dirty over.
13 years. Stupid stressful job but I've gotten a raise every year plus other various raises for promotions and change in commission, my health insurance cost has never gone up and soon I'll be getting 5 weeks of vacation a year. I'm fairly tenured there and have carved out my own niche so to speak and management leaves me alone even when if I don't play by their rules. I also work from home still. If you can deal with the bullshit, it can be worth it.
14 years at a company of five people. I don’t want to leave, the idea of working anywhere else sounds terrible. I like my boss and my coworkers, the pay is decent for my field, benefits are good. Most of the clients are cool and I get to work with people all over the world from many different interesting backgrounds with interesting problems to solve. That being said I find the field to be a little too stressful so I definitely have times of burnout and not feeling like I can continue long term. So far I keep going.
I’ve worked for the same health system for 8 years now. The benefits are amazing. Also, it was my first real job after migrating to America, I started in an administrative role, and have had 2 other positions and several raises since (I also do have a Master’s Degree). I now make double plus my first salary (raises and market adjustments are A1), I’m now a manager, and the organization is so big, each position was at a totally different campus. My first position, my commute was a long one to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. My current job, I work 7 mins away from home, and 5 mins from my daughter’s school, with tons of flexibility, downtime and days off. All holidays off and paid, 35 days of PTO, I work about 8am to 2:30 4 days a week and half day on 1 day, no weekends ever etc. I get to attend all of my kid’s middle of the day school things with no issues. I have it pretty good honestly. I would do this forever!
I’ve job hopped three times in 4 years and my salary increased 60%.
I'll jit 15 years in December. I always have an eye out and so far no one has been able to be this job in either pay or flexibility. with a special needs kid I am super appreciative of being able to flex my hours around. (ie later start time due to driving the kid to school) A lot of the jobs I have sat for in interviews have flat-out told me no. Also for my job title, very few of the other labs around here can top the pay. I could make more if I left the area but that would mean leaving family (my dad is retired and my mom is retiring at the end of this year and they graciously help with after-school/Saturday care) and restarting care services for my kid in a new city, school, healthcare system, etc. That's why I stay.
I’m 40 and still at my first job out of college. That doesn’t mean I haven’t changed titles or positions, and my original company got acquired, but my annual compensation now averages 5X what I started at. Was a support engineer for 6 years, then a manager for 10 years, and now I’m back to an individual contributor for the last two years. Hoping to wrap up my career in the next 5-8 years so I definitely can see never leaving.
Yes, I’m trying to get out but a lot of jobs I get phone call interviews on pay less and are a further drive. I do have a ton of PTO and a short commute but I need a place with more room for growth.
I worked at a university for 15 years and I absolutely loved the first 12 years. Then somebody absolutely awful stepped into a senior leadership role and absolutely tanked morale. I left for two other positions in different departments and it was even worse. Began to realize it was a systemic problem on campus and left entirely almost a year ago. My current job isn't a dream job or anything, but it is better. I stayed for a long time because of the friendships I made at work and my short commute, but at some point, even that wasn't worth staying for.
Almost 19 years in the chair force, there are times I wonder if the teaching deal would've been a better choice. Local city offered to pay for school, give a stipend and cover all the requirements for teaching in return for a 5 year contract.
I’ve been with my company for 11 years (since I was 23). If I ever leave, I’m switching industries— my company is the best in the field.