Loyalty is often seen as a workplace virtue, but some employees feel overlooked despite decades of dedication. John Bartlett, a California man who spent 42 years committed to his job, learned this the hard way. When he retired, the company offered only a certificate and a barbeque to acknowledge his service. Bartlett’s coworkers felt he deserved more, and one of them, Sheena (known as @producer_sheen on TikTok), posted a video capturing his last day on the job.
Working asian chinese senior colleague back to work with face mask greeting on each other in office morning (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Edwin Tan)
“Today is my co-worker’s last day. He worked for this company for 42 years making minimum wage,” Sheena’s video caption read. “He loves working here so much he didn’t want to retire. No bonus, just a barbecue, and a certificate. Don’t be a slave to your job. Thank you, John, for your loyalty.” The TikTok video resonated with viewers, quickly going viral and amassing over 10 million views.
Mature man at family party (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Justin Case)
The comment section was flooded with people eager to support the old man. “How can we make his retirement better,” asked @shoelover99, while @hotishpocket commented, “Can we get his Venmo or put money towards a nice dinner or something? He deserves better!” In addition, many people suggested that someone should start a GoFundMe page for the retired employee. Taking this suggestion, Sheena started a GoFundMe, which has since then raised $119,024.
“John who is 70+ is one of the most talented & hard-working co-workers I know. His energy is unmatched! Mr. John worked for 42 years for our company. Rain or shine, he will make it to work. Extremely dependable. It doesn’t matter how much we would suggest to take his vacation days, he would still want to work,” Sheena wrote on the GoFundMe page. She also created an entire playlist on her TikTok, based on John’s story. The playlist features as many as 14 posts as of now.
Shot of an attractive young nurse sitting and bonding with her senior patient in his kitchen at home (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | DMP)
In one post, Sheena revealed that when she told John about the overwhelming support pouring in from people all around the world, his response was simply a “classic shoulder shrug.” However, after raising tens of thousands in funds for her former colleague, Sheena told News Australia in October 2023, that she was worried that her employer might terminate her employment, because people were slamming the company after John’s story became viral.
“If there’s one thing that I could ask for, if I do get fired, please book me,” she said, according to News Australia. “I do own a small business which I barely get bookings for so it would be nice if I could work for my money rather than getting handouts.” Sheena’s business is based out of Northern California and deals with mobile cocktail-making services that set up a pop-up bar for local events and parties. “If you guys want to hire me … I have a team so we’ll come and rock your party and I’ll work for my money,” she urged her followers.
You can follow Sheena on TikTok to catch up on her photography business.
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Pictured: A healthy practice?
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.