There is a new Guinness World Record: This man has worked more than 84 years for the same company! The Brazilian began working in January 1938 and continues to do so in the same company to this day.
By Entrepreneur en Español Edited by Eduardo Scheffler Zawadzki
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This article was translated from our Spanish edition.
We know, you feel proud to have worked for the same company for a year, but we have news for you: you don't have so much to celebrate. A man named Walter Orthmann has been working for 84 years at a textile company in Brazil called Industrias Renaux SA (popularly known as RenauxView ).
Walter (who just turned 100 years old!) was born on April 19, 1922 in the town of Brusque, in the state of Santa Catarina, and began working at the company as a shipping assistant on January 17, 1938, thanks to his command of the German language. Was 16 years old. His discipline and dedication earned him a promotion to a sales position and he was later named sales manager, a position he has held ever since.
The time he has spent working for RenauxView has earned him the Guinness World Record for the person who has worked for the same company the longest. According to the Guinness Records site, the man was extremely disciplined from a young age and at that time it was common for sons to start working from a very young age to help with the household economy: "They gave me the opportunity to work as a salesman. I traveled to São Paulo and in less than a week I filled the production with orders equivalent to three months of work".
Over the years Walter has witnessed enormous changes in the world and in the work culture. His secret to staying active and optimistic is to focus on the present. "I don't plan much, nor do I worry much about tomorrow. The only thing that matters to me is that tomorrow is another day where I wake up, get up, exercise and go to work; you need to deal with the present, not the past or the future. Here and now is what counts. So get to work!".
On May 1 Orthmann uploaded a video to his Instagram account in which you can see the tribute that the company organized for his feat. In the caption of the post he comments: "My dedication to work and love of life brought me here."
Neither the man nor the company have stated if he ever plans to retire.
