A sidebar with Jan DeYoung.

Byline: Thomas Franz

After working for 50 years with Rhoades McKee, Jan DeYoung decided to call it a career.

She retired on Sept. 25, 2019, which was exactly 50 years after her date of hire. Her roles included administrative assistant and law clerk. She left the Grand Rapids firm as its leader in file management services and facilities management.

DeYoung spoke with Michigan Lawyers Weekly about her career and why she decided to retire.

When did you realize you were close to reaching 50 years of working at Rhoades McKee?

Five years ago when we had our awards ceremony for 45 years of work, I knew I was going to retire when I hit the 50-year mark.

I said that I had my health and I like my job, but I did feel that because my husband is retired, that it was time for me to spend more time with my husband and do some things on our bucket list.

Why did you want to work in a law firm?

One of my roommates was the receptionist here and they were looking for a file clerk, so I interviewed for the job. They hired someone else, but that person left at lunch and never came back. One of the attorneys I interviewed with called and said to come down, so I pretty much stuck with it.

I say that I quit once and got fired three times. I quit when our first daughter was born, and I came back probably within six months. I thought I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, but I found that I didn't want to stay at home.

I was never hired to answer the phone but I got stuck out there a few times. I did a terrible job of answering the phone, so I got fired from doing that three times.

How has your job changed over 50 years?

First would be technology. The size of the firm has...

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