A 90-year-old woman in the US worked at a store for 74 years until the traffic on her commute became unbearable. Melba Mebane also never missed a day at work unless she was really sick.
“I loved going to work every day,” she told CNBC Make It. “If you’re happy with what you’re doing, why not keep doing it?”
Melbane, who turns 91 this November, retired from her job as a sales associate at a departmental store in Texas last month.
Sharing her best advice to find a long, fulfilling career is not to take a job simply because it pays well, as “money can disappoint you". “Finding something you’re good at, and people you enjoy working with, is so much more important," she told the publication.
To be happier at work “it’s important to invest in your relationships,” Mebane adds. She has had several opportunities to become a manager, but she never accepted the offers. “Nobody likes management, because they have to make the tough decisions,” Mebane told CNBC Make It. “I liked my friends at work, and I wanted to keep them, so I just focused on being the best salesperson I could be.”
She did, however, make the best out of her close relationship with the Dillards to tailor the job to her changing needs throughout her career, including negotiating flexible working hours and more comfortable working conditions.
Currently, many of Mebane’s former co-workers visit her in the retirement village where she recently moved in. The 90-year-old also spends a lot of time talking to people on the phone and enjoying visits from her four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Moreover, the women who still work at the store even take turns checking in on her every week. Those friendships, Mebane said, made working at Dillard’s “the best job I ever had.”
Read more: The 100-year-old woman who still goes to work every week
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