Virginia Saunders is 82 years old, she has worked for the Government Printing Office for 63 years. She has no plans to retire.
You can only admire the longevity and persistence of an individual who reports to the same duty station for over six decades. To put this in perspective, she has worked for the government longer than she was expected to live when she was born.
While sending along a hearty and sincere congratulations to Virginia, her long tenure is also an occasion to ask some hard questions about the dynamism of the government labor pool. Virginia Saunderses don't come along very often, but I venture to guess they are more common in government service than in the private sector. While more senior employees certainly bring added experience to the job, a private employer usually finds it in their best interest to incentivize retirement long before the eightieth birthday. One guesses that productivity peaks before age 82, and a more junior employee could both do Virginia's job for a lot less salary (she probably makes over $79,000 a year) AND take advantage of a fair bit of newer technology to do her work more efficiently.
Since Reagan lifted the requirement for mandatory retirement at 70, perhaps worried that he'd be forced into his own early retirement, there is presumably nothing keeping Virginia from coming in to work each day. And as long as she wants to, that is good for Virginia. I'm just not sure it's the best thing for you, her employer.
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