If you stop off for dinner some evening at Rudy’s Hideaway, Lobsterhouse and Grill, on Folsom Boulevard in Rancho Cordova, chances are excellent you will run into Jean Payne. In fact, if you had gone to Rudy’s anytime in the last three-and-a-half decades it is likely you would have seen the friendly British import.

“It will be 35 years in April,” the Citrus Heights resident and career waitress said. Long ago it was common to have the same job for a working lifetime. In this era of job insecurity, 35-years of continuous employment is a newsworthy span of time. Most people today either leave the job for another one or—more likely—their job leaves them.

“Too lazy to look for another job,” she said with a chuckle.

Absolutely no one would describe Payne as “lazy,” least of all her employer. She has been at Rudy’s through two ownerships and three managers, including the original owner, the late Rupert “Rudy” Rudis, then his son, Rich, and the current owner, Steve Ryan, who can’t say enough good things about Jean.

“She’s always here early,” Ryan said. “If we’re real busy, Jean never complains if she is assigned extra tables.”

The admiration is mutual. Payne said she and Steve have a great employee-employer relationship.

“I could have retired years ago, but they treat me good,” Payne said, traces of her British accent still present.

She came to the U.S. as a nanny in 1962. She stayed in that job for just two years and has been in this country ever since. “I wanted to travel,” Payne said. America is as far as she got.

Her work at Rudy’s is hard sometimes, but it is also recreational because of her relationship with customers. “I enjoy the job. I go down to socialize more than anything else.”

Ron Radford is also a long-time Rudy’s waiter. “Eighteen year May First,” Ron said. “It’s a pleasant place to work.” Most of the other employees have also been there for a long time, although Payne holds the record. Especially unique when you realize that personnel turnover is estimated at 200-percent in the food service industry.

Some of the regulars ask to be seated in Payne’s service area. “People seek her out,” Steve Ryan said. “Same with Ron.” Ron Radford has been a waiter at Rudy’s for 18 years. “We know people who don’t come in if Ron isn’t here. Both are very good at remembering customers’ names, their kids, their parents, their dogs.”

Steve Ryan was asked what life would be like for him if Jean and Ron suddenly left Rudy’s. He looked as though he had been struck by lightning and could not immediately come up with the words. When he did, it was clear that such a loss would seriously impact business.

Payne has served some of her regulars scores of times over the many years she has worked at Rudy’s and has gotten to know many of them very well. “I know their grandchildren,” she said.

Before moving to northern California all those years ago, she held the same job in Laguna Beach and in celebrity-packed Newport Beach. Her customers there included John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Rose Marie, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and gravel-voiced actor Andy Devine, about whom she says, “he was such a nice man.”

Her husband, Robert, is also retired. That is another reason she continues to work. “We can’t be home at the same time,” she said with a laugh. “You wouldn’t want to be together 24/seven.”

Don’t expect to find Jean Payne at work on Sundays, Mondays, or Thursdays. “Those are my days off,” she said.

Even a career girl who loves her job has to have some time off.