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Post: I've been working at a company for seven years now

I'm a simple emigrant and I've been working at a company for seven years now

12/18/2025, 10:13:32 AM

From time to time I receive emails from colleagues I don’t even know, and they all write something like “I’m leaving after 130 years of working at the company.” I read them and wonder: how can you work in one company for so long? And then I think about myself and realize that seven years have already passed, and I hadn’t even noticed. On average, Germans work at one employer for about 11 years. In 2023, almost 42% of employees over 25 were with their current employer for at least 10 years, and another 20% had worked in one company from 5 to 10 years. There is no separate statistic for migrants, but you know yourself that it is common for us to change jobs every couple of years. Although I am sure that with moving to Germany this pattern changes as well. As seen from median data — salary levels are roughly the same in many places, and why swap a good thing for something worse? Of course, for a super offer people will gladly switch to a new job, but, judging by statistics, such offers appear after 10 years of experience. What is surprising is that people work very long not only in large corporations. Even in very small ones, with a staff of up to 20 people, the average duration of employment is about 8.5 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if this statistic coincides with the average lifespan of such companies. And if they hadn’t closed, people would have worked there for another hundred years. Sometimes I see people who work for decades in positions that in my head could only be temporary. For example, waiters, receptionists, salespeople, bartenders not at their own bar. This also astonishes me, but without negativity, just interesting that everyone has their own preferences. Could you do that? And how long have you been at your current job?