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Would you hire your family?
Filed under: Work Life, Relatives, Siblings, Life & Style, Going Green
Whether or not you would is one thing. Whether or not you SHOULD is another. Many business owners, especially those with smaller businesses, tend to rely on and hire members of their family to help them out. Some of those stints are short term and some of them are all the way up to partner (or, as I like to think of it, co-conspirator). But, is it a good idea to mix the personal with the professional? After all, you can't get any more personal than family.
The positive aspects of bringing a family member into the work fold include the fact that most likely the family member already knows a lot about the business and would require less training. Additionally, some family members are more likely to work harder than someone who is not family out of loyalty.
The downside of hiring family is that some of them might expect kickbacks or special treatment solely because they're related. Others are less likely to work as hard as their non-related counterparts because they think they don't have to. Then there's the whole mixing personal and professional rule of thumb we've always been told to avoid. Those two things are said to never really mix. Yet, many of the world's most successful businesses have been family operated. When things are going well, isn't it family you want to share your successes with the most? Likewise, when things aren't going well, most likely it's your family you turn to in hard times for support.
What do you think? Is it ever a good idea to employ or work for your family, or is it a bad mix? Would you or do you work with your family?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
9-22-2008 @ 9:28AM
Mallory said...This is such a hard topic because it's really hard to say what I would do if I was actually in that situation. My friend has recently decided to work for her brother. She has had a really hard time finding a job and the position her brother is offering is not only just a job she can finally have but it's a great opportunity for her. I think that is one situation it would be really hard to say no. However, once you're in that situation, would it be hard to get out? That would be my fear. I don't know. Definitely an interesting topic.
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10-13-2008 @ 10:17PM
RochelleSC said...omg. My husband and I just finished having a conversation about this! He works for a family run business where the little brother is basically nestled in under big brother's wing as the VP of the company, doesn't get to work before 9:00 any given day, barely works an 8 hour day any day of the week, and leaves frequently for hours at a time to run "errands". Brother-in-law also started working there a few months ago, right before a huge round of layoffs happened to people who had been there since the company was started.... did he suffer the typical "last hired, first fired"? Of course not!
I, too, worked for a family run company about 15 years ago and I swore NEVER AGAIN! I have yet to hear of a family run company that doesn't have ALL other family members basically sitting on the shoulders of one dominant founder/owner, doing a half-ass job at whatever position was created for them, knowing full-well that they would basically have to commit murder to be fired....
...but then again, who would want to go to work everyday knowing that while you can't ever get fired, you probably also can't ever get promoted, probably don't really have a passion for the job (since it probably wan't YOUR dream to start the business), and have no real incentive to learn more, think more, or do more....
NEPOTISM IS ALIVE AND WELL and always will be....
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