In today’s fast-paced world, loyalty to employers and company loyalty are becoming increasingly rare. On average, around a third of all employees in Germany only work for the same employer for a maximum of five years. Another third stay with the same company for ten years. But only a quarter remain loyal to one company for their entire working life. This makes it all the more appreciated when employees go into well-earned retirement after almost fifty years at the same company where they started their training.
At Linseis Messgeräte in Selb, two such veterans retired in the spring after many years of loyal service: Andrea Dießner and Hartwig Rädel. Both of them had been with the company almost since it was founded.
Hartwig Rädel retires after 47 years
Hartwig Rädel began his training as a precision electronics technician at the then still relatively young company in 1974. At that time, Linseis’ main sales product was recorders for recording measurement data, as the computer was far from having made its triumphal march.
Mr. Rädel witnessed the beginning of thermal analysis – the company’s main field of business today – the restructuring from the analog to the digital age and the development of international markets. He also accompanied Linseis in its transformation from a local medium-sized company to a globally active specialist for niche products.
Mr. Rädel not only played an active role in this, but also shaped generations of measuring instruments and special solutions through his own developments. Almost every special device that Linseis built from the 1990s to the 2010s was fitted with a circuit board developed by Mr. Rädel and he always had a patented and usually creative solution for many, if not almost all, problems.
Mr. Rädel certainly has a few stories and anecdotes to tell, but he didn’t want to share any of them for this article. The gentleman remains silent. Only when asked what’s coming up in the next few years did he answer in detail: “First of all, I’m not doing anything for a few weeks. Put my feet up, switch off for a while. After that, there’s a cellar waiting to be cleared out and some renovation work in the house that has been put off for too long. ”
Andrea Dießner was employed by LINSEIS for over 49 years
Andrea Dießner began her training as an industrial clerk at Linseis in Selb in 1972. Back then, she was still working at a typewriter and not at a PC, where every spelling mistake was still unforgivably hammered onto the paper in black and white. She also experienced the company’s transformation, the advancing digitalization and increasingly complex programs and processes.
For many years, Ms. Dießner was responsible for HR and accounting and therefore worked directly at the control center. She still remembers many a long night with stacks of consignment notes, customs documents, invoices and bank statements. In analog times, it wasn’t always easy. Nowadays, there are programs that do some of this automatically. Whether this reduces stress is questionable, however.
Unfortunately, with such experienced employees, know-how is always lost, which the following generations must first learn through experience in order to be able to successfully maneuver the company through the next 50 years.
With the current corona crisis and the associated changes and restrictions, the two have now really experienced “everything” that can be experienced in a “working generation” and are now saying goodbye to their more than deserved retirement.
Although they had to forego a big farewell party, the management did not miss the opportunity to bid a fitting farewell to the two employees.
Senior boss Claus Linseis and his two sons Florian and Vincent Linseis thanked Ms. Dießner and Mr. Rädel with a gift for their many years of loyalty and excellent work and wished them a relaxing start to their retirement.
