Reed Smith receptionist marks half-century of discretion

Here's a workplace riddle:

Who hears everything, yet hears nothing?

The staff at Reed Smith, a Center City law firm, know the answer: Carol Lennon, chief receptionist.

Her policy of complete discretion coupled with a professional attitude have kept her in her job for 50 years.

"You never talk about any client, any attorney, or any staff member to anyone else," said Lennon, who was honored this Wednesday with a champagne party at the office.

"Fifty years? That is so unusual these days," said Victoria Green, founder of Green Leadership Consulting L.L.C., a management consulting firm in Center City.

Companies and employees are less loyal to each other these days, Green said. Longtime employees with higher salaries may be more vulnerable to layoff. Some longtime workers lose out by not keeping up with technology.

Lennon began as a telephone operator using a call board and plugs like comedian Lily Tomlin . Manual typewriters gave way to computers.

"You are so good at what you do as director of first impressions," Reed Smith regional supervisor Michael Czerpak said, praising her at the party.

"Unannounced salespeople come in and they are dismissed without even knowing they are dismissed," he said.

Lennon, who lives in Churchville, declines to give her age. "You can do the math," she said.

She grew up outside State College, Pa., and was recruited right out of high school to be an operator for Bell Telephone in Philadelphia.

Four years later, in 1961, she started at Townsend, Elliott & Munson, a Philadelphia law firm that merged in 1984 with Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith. The 3,300-employee firm is now global. About 385, including 151 lawyers, work in Philadelphia.

Lennon worked under five managing partners in Philadelphia. Going with the flow is another skill.

"If a policy changes, you must change with it," she said. "It doesn't do you any good to say, 'I'm not going to do this or that.' If you are asked to do something, you do it."

Over the years, Lennon has met some famous clients - politicians, athletes, entertainers. Who they are, she won't say. Little office secrets? Lennon knows who has had affairs, but again, that's private.

"She probably knows where the bodies are buried, more so than anyone else," said Christopher Walker, a longtime partner who has known Lennon since the 1970s.

Lennon said she had no plans to retire.

"I love my job. I don't speak negative, period," she said. "Maybe that's why I have lasted so long."