Working in a Family Business

Understanding the Pros and Cons

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Imagine this scenario: It's Monday morning, and you arrive at the office early to get started on your week. You need to put in extra hours to make up for your sales partner, Jack, who hasn't been working very hard lately.

In most companies, you could simply complain to your boss. After all, partners should work equally hard - so if Jack isn't doing his share, then your boss should know, right?

The problem is that you don't work for a 'normal' company. You work for a family business, and Jack is your boss's son. That makes things a bit more complicated, especially because you know that your boss doesn't like to hear negative things about Jack.

So, what do you do? How do you handle difficult situations involving family members in a family-run company?

In this article, we review the pros and cons of working in a family business - both for family members and for 'outsiders' - and we discuss some strategies for creating and managing successful working relationships in a family-business environment.

Issues for Family Members

If you work in your family's business, you probably already know that it can be a complex environment.

Here's an example: Imagine that your mom owns the company you work for. You're heading the advertising department and have a unique, innovative idea for the next marketing campaign.

When you pitch the idea to your mom, however, she's less than enthusiastic. And instead of bringing up impersonal, practical reasons for not going along with your idea, she brings up mistakes you made years ago, before you even started working for the company.

In a family company, there's often no such thing as a "fresh start".

Like everything in life, working with your family has its pros and cons:

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