After the title of «employee of the month» or «employee of the year», would we have found the employee of a lifetime? This American is currently being talked about for her professional achievement: she held the same job for 74 years with unfailing loyalty!
74 years of seniority
While some are reluctant to go to work and can drag their feet, Melba Mebane seems to have found the perfect job that suits her best: she is an «elevator girl», or rather was. An «elevator girl» is a lift operator in French, or someone responsible for calling the elevator for customers. In a way, Melba Mebane was therefore an elevator door, a job that requires you to be constantly standing and serving residents.
Fortunately for her, she did not work in a sinister building with dubious customers since she was employed at Dillard’s, an American chain of stores specializing in luxury particularly established in Texas, where Melba Mebane is precisely from. A prestigious setting in which she remained working… 74 years.
It’s still pretty crazy when you add it up: Melba Mebane has spent more than seven decades at Dillard’s and has just retired at 90. 74 years old is a lifetime and she started her job at the age of 17, in 1949! However, it should be noted that she did not remain a lift operator all her life since she was in the meantime promoted to the cosmetics department, still in the same brand.
“Even with the changing eras, from where she started to where we are now in the modern world, her values still hold true,” store manager James Saenz tells Fox News. Melba Mebane thus worked 40 hours a week, even during the last decades.
«The store opened at 10 a.m. and she wanted her parking space, so she arrived between 9 a.m. and 9:15 a.m.,» continues her former manager. Even more amazing: she would never have missed a single day of work. A professional exception, no doubt.