A coworker wished me a happy 10 year work anniversary. I started at my current job on June 20th, 2011. Since I took two medical leaves and worked 3/4 time for a few months, it is more like I worked here 9.5 years instead of the full 10 years. At my last job before this one, I worked for about 11.5 years, so 10 years is not even the longest I have been at one company. Unfortunately, my marriage was shorter than either of my last two jobs.
My current boss also hired a bunch of our coworkers from the prior company during 2011 so there will be a few 10 year work anniversaries coming up. Some companies give out pretty substantial gifts of mementoes or major tenure milestones. Our company does not. I basically got nothing for my 5 year anniversary.
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For the first few years, I worked a lot of hours. I was basically the only person in my function for the entire company so I had to fix a lot of bad processes and come up with new ones. I did hire a few people early on, but there were a handful of coworkers. Today, there are about 40 people doing the same work, though obviously with more scope and in more detail. Since the commute was up to three hours each day roundtrip from my house, I rented a room from a friend close to work. It cut the commute down to about 10-15 minutes each way on local streets. I stayed there for about 2-3 years until the friend got married and booted me out. During that period, I would regularly stay until after 9:00 pm at work, and often eat all three meals in the work cafeteria. I would also go into work on weekends if I did not go back “home” in Orange County. Life is kind of monotonous if you are single when all your friends are married with children. My life was work and sleep, with the occasional Saturday off to watch TV. More recently, it was work, sleep, and dialysis, even on Saturdays. Life is better definitely better post-transplant, but I still sit around at home a lot.
Life with chronic diseases 