Why You Shouldn't Work for a Family-Owned Company

Have you ever worked for a Family-Owned Company? I have. It can be very stressful and full of problems. Especially when the person you report to is the President's Mother! It makes for a very, very stressful situation. I'll explain further.

The first thing is that, despite the fact that they are related, if your Manager gets yelled at by her son, she's going to take it out on you. Managers tend to do that anyways, even when they aren't related to the Owner. It's all part of the pyramid effect in Management. But, it's made more difficult by the relationship between the Manager and Owner. No one likes to feel stupid in front of their own child. For which I can sympathize, but there is no reason to transfer their feelings of insecurity onto the lower level employees.

It is the job of a Manger, in my opinion, to make the employees feel appreciated, not like they are worms beneath the feet of the Manager. It's okay for the Manager to be upset if the employee has made a serious mistake, but it is not okay for them to belittle the employee for that mistake. Or to talk to them like they are the same age as the Manager's grandchild. This kind of behavior is completely unprofessional and unwarranted. No one likes to be made a fool of, or condescended to.

The second thing is that, to save face with the Owner, the Manager will not properly discipline the employees who are causing noticeable and stressful problems within the group that she manages. The Manager would rather have people mistreating each other, as long as everyone meets the deadline. Now, explain to me exactly how that is good for morale? If your employees are unhappy with other employees' conduct, failure to follow procedures, or whatever, should you, as a Manager, ignore this in favor of the bottom line? I don't believe so.

Unhappy employees lead to very high turnovers. This will then cause the Manager to have to constantly be training new employees. And of course, she doesn't handle the training herself. She foists it off on one of her problem making employees, who then milks the company for overtime because she couldn't complete all of her work since she was training another new employee. And because said employee is now working so much overtime, they are now very stressed out and more surly than they were before. Which can lead to even more problems, especially for the newest employees. As the stress grows for the overworked and under appreciated employee, they will take it out on the new employees, especially if they are not fast enough on the learning curve. There will be the subtle insults and the easily heard insults made to the other problem causing employee. Things like "I can't believe it, she's so stupid!" or "I can't believe she made that mistake and now Sam's yelling at me because I didn't have time to catch it!"

I understand the need to be upset when people try to blame you for mistakes you really had no real control over, but insulting the new employee is not right. Everyone makes mistakes, including seasoned employees. No one is perfect and to insult other people is childish, unethical and hurtful.

What's even worse is when the Manager is aware of the treatment being received by the disparaged employee, whether veteran or a new acquisition. And the Manager does absolutely nothing to curtail the behavior, which is the most disturbing part of it all.

Speaking from a horrific experience myself, in which, two of my co-workers viciously and without regret, caused me to end up in the hospital with an epileptic type seizure. And it is disturbing to note that the President of the company was kept completely unaware of the situation,as his mother never reported it. Until I told Human Resources about it a few months later.

This brings me to my third point. It is very unlikely that the President is going to side with you, the employee, even in the face of his mother's indiscretion of not reporting the behavior directly to Human Resources immediately. Why? Because that's his Mother and she can do no wrong. And unfortunately, in a Family-Owned business, this is often the case. There was no disciplinary action against her because she was the President's mother.

Now let me be perfectly clear, not all Family-Owned businesses operate in this manner. My husband's family operated a business for years and they never treated anyone the way I was treated. They tried to be fair and impartial. If someone made a mistake, well it happens. No one was berated needlessly or treated badly. And action would have been taken if one employee abused another. And that would have included family members.

What you need to consider, of course, is what kind of environment do you want to work in. A relatively happy environment, or one filled with needless petty behavior and unethical conduct. Does the company deal harshly with offenders, no matter who they know or are related to, or do they look the other way when their relative or favorite person is involved.

The decision is yours. Just remember, you are a person. You deserve to be treated with respect. In spite of the politics of a Family-Owned office, you have the right to not work with people who treat each other no better than slugs. If you are being treated unfairly, make sure you DOCUMENT everything. Every time someone insults you, or you hear someone being insulted, DOCUMENT it. Every time you are treated badly by your Manager, write it down. And for God's sake, if they cause you to go into the hospital, don't wait, QUIT! Right after you file a formal complaint with the HR Department that is. However, be sure you have enough proof to collect your Unemployment, because chances are you will lose the claim because you quit. However, if you can provide substantial proof, you have a better chance. I know. It happened to me. Incidentally, I did lose the appeal, but I tried.

One other point. NEVER take a job at a company where your friends also work. It will ultimately backfire on you. Feelings will be hurt, Backs will be stabbed and Friendships will definitely be lost. I saw this happen too.

But, ultimately, it is your decision. Make sure you do what's right for you. Oh, and a side note again, I am not saying all Family Owned Companies are bad, just the ones with very bad judgment or unethical Managers. This is solely based on my very bad experience and in no way represents what every company is like.