What do oil and water and family members who are employees in your small business have in common?
They rarely mix and are frequently toxic to the environment.
Although it should be noted that there are of course occasions of success, the most likely outcome is entrenched employees that are nearly impossible to remove, strained relations and uncomfortable holiday dinners. In fact, you could probably make an argument that it is easier to remove a unionized government employee than a family member who is your employee.
I recently read an interesting article that deals with this topic in the New York Times on February 11, 2010, entitled “Fire Your Relatives. Scare Your Employees. And Stop Whining” by Kermit Pattison. (Click here to read).
While some of his suggestions may be too aggressive for your average small business owner, they get right down to my point.
As a business owner you are either in it to win it or you are not.
Which are you?
This article was written by Jay Kossen, CPA at Numerico, PC. Click here to view Numerico’s website.
