Ethnography Summary
Victoria Velasquez spoke over the phone with Kim Longan, the CEO of Kim’s Billing Dynamics in Moorpark, CA.
Date: 4/30/17
Type: Individual Interview 2
Location: Over the phone
Team participants: Victoria
User Characteristics: Kim Longan
Female, age early 50s
Owns a medical billing company in Southern California
Asks if applicants have been convicted of a crime on job applications
Is extremely generous and totally believes in second chances
Has a history of hiring individuals who live off of government assistance
Treats her employees like family
Will create a part-time employment opportunity for someone she feels deeply for and wants to help
Has had a number of bad experiences with former employees who were not ex-offenders
Is experiencing hard times in her business right now and wants to avoid any risks that could further disrupt her company’s performance
What is this person about – what drives him/her? Kim loves to give. She treats her employees extremely well by showering them with gifts and being very flexible with their personal and familial needs. She strives to make people happy.
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? Kim has a hard time saying no to people. She feels sorry for a lot of people and lets her guilt overcome her common sense and rationality.
Memorable quote from interview: “I give my employees keys to my business and my house. I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving that privilege to someone who has been convicted of a crime.” “I run a small business and I have been faced with expensive lawsuits by ex-employees that I fired. I don’t want to take that risk again.” “My employees are very close with my family and my three daughters. I wouldn’t want to put them in danger.”
Top 3 Learnings:
- Kim is a very generous person who tries to see the good in everything.
- She is very loyal to her current employees, her business, and her family. Her business decisions are driven by this.
- She is more inclined to offer employment to someone who has been affected by incarceration but not someone who themselves has been incarcerated.
Key Insight – (1) As an employer, she places a lot of trust in her employees and she isn’t sure she could do that with someone who has been previously convicted of a crime. (2) If her business was larger and harder to take down, she might be more open to giving ex-offenders a second chance.