Blog Barista: Jim Kunz & John Leigh | Nov 1, 2018 | Culture | Brew time: 3 min

Dear Donna,

The last 18 months here at KL&A have been filled with several landmarks. The company celebrated its 25th anniversary, we finally reached 100 employees, and we saw off KL&A’s first official retiree. Well, today marks another milestone for KL&A—your 25th work anniversary.

When you approached us about coming to work for KL&A as an independent contractor, we knew right away that we would rather hire you as our first employee. It didn’t matter that you had an infant in your arms and were looking for a position that allowed you to work from home.

Our first employee needed to be someone who was a self-starter, independent, smart, and a hard-worker. We needed someone that we could count on to get the job done. Someone that could help us build our company’s reputation as a leader in software development. So, having both worked with you previously, we already knew you were exactly that.

Now, whether we could afford to pay you or have enough work to keep you busy in the long term was entirely uncertain. But, we took the risk and agreed that we would do whatever we had to in order to make it work. Even if it meant bringing your firstborn, Bridget, into the office for a few hours each week.

That decision was the first of many risky decisions that we have taken over the past 25 years that have proven right. In fact, it may have been the best decision we ever made.

It wasn’t always easy, but the projects that you worked on during the first few years helped us build a reputation and provided the basis of our work experience and growth for the next 25 years. Your dedication and attention to detail played a significant role when developing KL&A’s expectations and standards for software. Having you still here just assures us that high-quality systems are still being built and our clients are happy.

We’ve come a long way together over the years—from stepping over baby toys and toddlers in the office, to a company of over 100 strong. It has been a pleasure to experience all these milestones with you. We feel honored and blessed to have you here this long. We hope that you have enjoyed working for us as much as we have enjoyed having you work for us. Happy work anniversary! It’s been a fabulous 25 years!

Sincerely,

Jim Kunz & John Leigh

Image above: An old photo of the Fisher Price farm set that John Leigh brought into the office for Donna’s daughter, Bridget, to play with while Donna worked. 

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