25 Signs That You've Been at the Same Job Too Long

I have accidentally read this article while browsing on the web for personal finance and personal improvement articles:

It's actually written by G.E. Miller in his blog (?) Wise bread:


We live in an age of short attention spans, low patience, instant gratification, and unrealistic expectations. Duration of employment is at an all-time low, and most of us don't make it past the two-year mark, on average. That being said, we've surely been around the guy or gal who has simply just been around too long. And just maybe, that guy or gal is you!



That's right, without realizing it, there might be signs that you've reached the limit on your current job, and it might be time to consider an employer or a career change. What follows are some warning signs that the writing is on the wall (all meant to be humorous, but some might be painfully true):


1) You start to refer to all new hires as "pups" and "spring chickens." - here in our office it's "newbies"

2) You play office trivia at lunch with other tenured folk just to make the "pups" and "spring chickens" feel out of place. - ahemm...



3) They ran out of clever title changes to make you feel special about doing the same work. - actually, they add new work to make us feel "wanted" (am I so bitter here?)

4) You start getting plaques for how long you've been around. - I think for us here, it stopped during our 6th year (which was last year, boy am I staying that long?!?)

 5) They start naming plants around the office after you as some sort of twisted memorial. - good thing this is not yet happening here:-)

 6) You stop caring that last night's leftover fish that you're microwaving for lunch stinks up the entire break room. - I could't care less how my left over dish smells like (maybe I'm too hungry?!?)

7) You work in a company of thousands of people, you have a common first name, and your email alias is your first name. - I have yet to check if there are hundreds of them named like me:-)

8) You bring up the "office softball game from 10 years ago," only to sadly realize mid-thought that nobody you're talking to was even there 10 years ago. - gee...I have been staying 7 years in this company, I just hope that this won't happen to me:-)

9) HR has to tell you to "use or lose" your vacation days. - they are actually doing this every year for each employees!

10) You know everyone's kids' names, and remember them. - yep!

11) You only stick around for the sole purpose of getting drunk and making an ass out of yourself at the annual Holiday party. - good thing is that I don't love partying:-)

12) You're the only person the IT guy completely avoids because he's scared of you. - actually my batch mates are scared of me...and I don't know why, I don't bite and I haven't even physically hurt any of them!

13) There are empty liquor bottles in your cubicle...and you just don't care. - mine is magazine rack full of scratch papers and files from 7 years ago:-)

14) You can't remember when you didn't spend an hour a day at watching YouTube videos at work. - gee...this is not accessible in our office; the restrictions are too strong!

15) You reminisce about the '80s all the time, only to painfully realize later that most of the people you work with were actually born in the late '80s. - heheh...mine is 90's...I'm still a kid during 80's:-)



16) Your boss is younger than you. Yeah.... - no comment:-)



17) You remember actually cashing a paycheck from the same employer. - is this for the bonuses?!?



18) You get nostalgic about how things used to be...and those things used to really suck back then. - it's actually the opposite for us here...at least for me:-)

19) You are grandfathered in to an actual pension. Man, those were nice. - I think we only have insurance in our company, not pension.

20) You tell your boss about a job offer you received and they just laugh. - so far I haven't done so:-)

21) Business casual now means jeans and a polo shirt. - for us casual means jeans and polo shirt; business attire is slacks with some "passable" formal looking blouse (for girls).

22) You brought your kid to work on "bring your kid to work day" when they started school but they couldn't make this year's because they have their own job now. - I've been married for 4 years and still, no kid yet and yeah...sometimes their making me the topic about it :-(

23) You reference a scene in Office Space, comparing it to your job, at least once a week. - I have yet to find out what 'Office Space' means:-)

24) You stop getting performance reviews because your boss ran out of BS suggestions for "areas to improve." - might be happening soon:-(

25) 9-to-5 literally means 9-to-5. - for us it's 9x5 (9 hours a day, 5 days a week)