Company Blog

Family Matters

by Adam Zack — May 25, 2016

Business owners often get blinded by the mask of family

“Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.”

-Unknown

I started work in the family grocery business when I was 15, the store had a rule that family members couldn’t work in the same department. Members of the family working in the same store was seriously frowned upon. (And fraternization between employees was so frowned upon there was actually a non-fraternization policy). How the heck did I even get hired?

Over the years policies and thought have changed, and since 90% of small businesses are family owned, the way that family members – especially second and third generation – are treated and interact with non-family employees is worthy of discussion. On one hand, having family members participate in the operations of the business gives feelings of trust, caring and the personal touch that owners give themselves. After all, if I can’t trust Junior to lock up and turn off the lights, whom can I trust? It’s natural to want to take care of your kids, brothers, sisters, and parents. Most of the time it works out, but business owners often get blinded by the mask of family and ignore mistakes, incompetence and the effect that having lots of family be involved in the business has on other employees. Working next to the boss’ kid makes tends to make you a little nervous that anything you say or do wrong will be shared at the family dinner table, right? When the family member gets a promotion over you, don’t you naturally think that it was because he’s family and you’re not? It can work – and work well – when the business patriarch holds his family to the same, or higher, standards that other employees are held to.

Timeliness, appearance and performance have to be the example. When those kids in the family are just allowed to come and go as they please, work when they want and then complain to dad how some employees just don’t’ care it’s time to re-implement that no-family rule again.