The Longest-Working Employees at Ford Have One Piece of Career Advice
At Ford’s Chicago plant, three longtime workers prove age hasn’t slowed their drive to keep working
At Ford’s Chicago plant, three longtime workers prove age hasn’t slowed their drive to keep working
What Three Ford Workers in Their 70s and 80s Can Teach Us About Retention, Loyalty, and the Value of Experience
At a time when companies are wrestling with turnover, disengagement, and the scramble to find reliable talent, three workers at Ford's Chicago Stamping Plant are quietly making a case that the industry hasn't quite caught up to yet.
Jim Lee is 73. Richard Laumeyer is 77. Arthur Porter is 87. Between them, they've clocked well over 150 years at the same plant. And none of them are going anywhere.
At a time when companies are wrestling with turnover, disengagement, and the scramble to find reliable talent, three workers at Ford's Chicago Stamping Plant are quietly making a case that the industry hasn't quite caught up to yet.
Jim Lee is 73. Richard Laumeyer is 77. Arthur Porter is 87. Between them, they've clocked well over 150 years at the same plant. And none of them are going anywhere.
The Numbers Put Their Loyalty in Perspective
According to Zippia, the average Ford employee stays with the company for 7.4 years. Porter alone has been there for 65 years. Lee for 54. Laumeyer for a few years longer than Lee.
Let that sink in for a moment. While most organizations are struggling to get workers to stay past their third year, these three men have watched colleagues come and go across multiple generations, survived wave after wave of layoffs, and kept showing up — week after week, decade after decade.
That's not just loyalty. That's something most HR strategies can only dream of building.
According to Zippia, the average Ford employee stays with the company for 7.4 years. Porter alone has been there for 65 years. Lee for 54. Laumeyer for a few years longer than Lee.
Let that sink in for a moment. While most organizations are struggling to get workers to stay past their third year, these three men have watched colleagues come and go across multiple generations, survived wave after wave of layoffs, and kept showing up — week after week, decade after decade.
That's not just loyalty. That's something most HR strategies can only dream of building.
They Didn't Survive Change — They Embraced It
Here's what's easy to miss in a story like this: these aren't men frozen in time, doing the same job the same way they did in the 1970s. The Chicago Stamping Plant, which has been running since 1924 and today employs around 1,100 workers producing parts for vehicles like the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Navigator, has transformed dramatically over the decades.
Automation has reshaped almost everything on the floor. And rather than being left behind by it, Lee leaned in.
"I program robots and PLCs — Programmable Logic Controllers," he says. "And to me, I find that exciting."
That's a 73-year-old grandfather of eight, describing emerging industrial technology as exciting. Not threatening. Not confusing. Exciting.
Porter, Ford's oldest employee and a former veteran, puts it simply: "It's not a lot of handwork. It's robots now." He's adapted, kept pace, and found his place in a plant that looks nothing like the one he walked into six and a half decades ago.
For HR and business leaders endlessly debating how to manage an aging workforce alongside automation, this is worth paying attention to. The assumption that older workers resist technology or can't keep up doesn't hold here. What it actually takes is an environment where people feel valued enough to want to grow.
Here's what's easy to miss in a story like this: these aren't men frozen in time, doing the same job the same way they did in the 1970s. The Chicago Stamping Plant, which has been running since 1924 and today employs around 1,100 workers producing parts for vehicles like the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Navigator, has transformed dramatically over the decades.
Automation has reshaped almost everything on the floor. And rather than being left behind by it, Lee leaned in.
"I program robots and PLCs — Programmable Logic Controllers," he says. "And to me, I find that exciting."
That's a 73-year-old grandfather of eight, describing emerging industrial technology as exciting. Not threatening. Not confusing. Exciting.
Porter, Ford's oldest employee and a former veteran, puts it simply: "It's not a lot of handwork. It's robots now." He's adapted, kept pace, and found his place in a plant that looks nothing like the one he walked into six and a half decades ago.
For HR and business leaders endlessly debating how to manage an aging workforce alongside automation, this is worth paying attention to. The assumption that older workers resist technology or can't keep up doesn't hold here. What it actually takes is an environment where people feel valued enough to want to grow.
Staying Active Is the Strategy
So what keeps them coming back? It's not complicated, but it is instructive.
"I don't want to stay at home and stay in bed," Porter says. "I'd rather be active. I've been active for all of these years, so I might as well stay active."
There's a lesson buried in that simplicity. Work, for these men, isn't just a paycheck. Its structure, purpose, identity, and community. It's what gets them up in the morning. Porter's mother told him early on, " Whatever you do, do it as you want to do it. He took that seriously. Sixty-five years seriously.
Laumeyer, for his part, says he's stayed because of the people. He's seen colleagues cycle through over the years and still finds something worth admiring in the culture around him. "You hear, 'Hey old man,' and I know who they're talking about," he jokes — with the ease of someone completely comfortable in his own skin and his place in the organization.
Lee, the self-described "baby" of the group at 73, echoes the same theme. He's a grandfather of eight with more than half a century of institutional knowledge, and he still finds his work engaging enough to keep doing it.
So what keeps them coming back? It's not complicated, but it is instructive.
"I don't want to stay at home and stay in bed," Porter says. "I'd rather be active. I've been active for all of these years, so I might as well stay active."
There's a lesson buried in that simplicity. Work, for these men, isn't just a paycheck. Its structure, purpose, identity, and community. It's what gets them up in the morning. Porter's mother told him early on, " Whatever you do, do it as you want to do it. He took that seriously. Sixty-five years seriously.
Laumeyer, for his part, says he's stayed because of the people. He's seen colleagues cycle through over the years and still finds something worth admiring in the culture around him. "You hear, 'Hey old man,' and I know who they're talking about," he jokes — with the ease of someone completely comfortable in his own skin and his place in the organization.
Lee, the self-described "baby" of the group at 73, echoes the same theme. He's a grandfather of eight with more than half a century of institutional knowledge, and he still finds his work engaging enough to keep doing it.
What Business Leaders Should Take From This
The conversation around older workers tends to default to retirement planning, succession management, and knowledge transfer — all important, but also slightly beside the point when you look at what's actually happening in Chicago.
These three men aren't hanging on out of habit. They're contributing, adapting, and bringing a depth of experience that simply cannot be replicated by someone two or three decades younger, no matter how talented. Their institutional knowledge — of the plant, the culture, the machinery, the history — is a competitive asset that Ford has, perhaps without fully intending to, managed to retain.
There are real questions worth asking here. How many organizations have created the conditions where someone would want to stay for 50+ years? What does it take to build that kind of belonging? And what are we losing when we subtly — or not so subtly — push experienced workers toward the exit before they're ready to go?
Porter's mother had it right. When people are given the chance to do their work the way they want to do it, with purpose and autonomy, they tend to do it remarkably well.
For a very long time.
The Chicago Stamping Plant has been building things since 1924. Three of its workers have been there for a significant chunk of that history — and they're still at it. That's not just a feel-good story. It's a workforce strategy worth studying.
The conversation around older workers tends to default to retirement planning, succession management, and knowledge transfer — all important, but also slightly beside the point when you look at what's actually happening in Chicago.
These three men aren't hanging on out of habit. They're contributing, adapting, and bringing a depth of experience that simply cannot be replicated by someone two or three decades younger, no matter how talented. Their institutional knowledge — of the plant, the culture, the machinery, the history — is a competitive asset that Ford has, perhaps without fully intending to, managed to retain.
There are real questions worth asking here. How many organizations have created the conditions where someone would want to stay for 50+ years? What does it take to build that kind of belonging? And what are we losing when we subtly — or not so subtly — push experienced workers toward the exit before they're ready to go?
Porter's mother had it right. When people are given the chance to do their work the way they want to do it, with purpose and autonomy, they tend to do it remarkably well.
For a very long time.
The Chicago Stamping Plant has been building things since 1924. Three of its workers have been there for a significant chunk of that history — and they're still at it. That's not just a feel-good story. It's a workforce strategy worth studying.