I’ve decided that I’m going to do this week’s “Question of the eeek” courtesy of Snarkland…it’s a really interesting one.

Do you think the days of our parents/grandparents, the days of working for one company for twenty-odd years and retiring with a gold watch, are over? Do you know anyone who’s worked in the same job long enough to get that kind of retirement package? When you retire, how many jobs do you think you will have had?

I have to say, this is a rather interesting question to answer. My family, for many years, has bounced around from self-owned-business to self-owned-business. For the past 20 years my grandmother has been the proud owner of a jewelry store and my grandfather ran an appliance store. When the appliance store was no longer needed (PC Richard and Sears opened up in the area) my grandmother managed to merge things together in such a unique way - it’s unreal. Consider it one-stop-shopping if you may but in that massive storefront for appliances she’s now housing a jewelry store, beauty supply store and salon. In many regards it’s a real womans store, it fills all of their personal needs. Jewelry, great hair and cosmetics. Considering she’s located in a rather ritzy part of town, business does very well for her. Customers average $600-$1000 per purchase in her stores and that’s repeat customers who come in on a weekly basis…talk about a high paycheck - eh?

My father has been working for the hospital for the last 6 years. Now, recently he went to a benefit dinner to honor those celebrating a milestone of some sort with the company. 5 years gets you a gold plated pen that says thanks for your services. 10 years gets you a few extra vacation days and some bonuses and then it goes on from there. This dinner was unique though, a woman who’d been with the hospital for over 50 years is the ONLY person in the entire hospital that’s actually been there that long. She’s been there longer than the building itself, her retirement package included a $500,000 bonus for her services. I think that’s just about as rewarding as one can get, right?

I don’t personally think I’m going to earn a retirement package, that’s mainly because I work primarily online and freelance work doesn’t offer you very much as for as company perks is concerned…heh.