Yours Toothfully by Dr Chan Joon Yee

Any moderate individual would recognise that there are pros and cons for hiring family members at the office. Some of the less moderate people only see the cons. They would give examples of successful family businesses that split up into bitter competing companies. Others have had family members working for them for many years, seeing the business grow from a small sole proprietorship to a public listed company.

Some people feel that hiring family members will put you together at home and at work. Job frustrations are brought home together. Business issues turn into domestic issues. Domestic issues affect your mood at the office the next day as the people responsible for those issues show up at work. This creates unnecessary stress and that’s why many big organisations avoid putting couples in the same department. I agree with this, but the degree to which this affects the individual really depends on how mild mannered the parties involved are.

Others see the merit of hiring people who care about the business. Employees who care about the business obviously treat customers better and value them more. They stay a little longer after work. They try not to take sick leave. They work a little harder in securing business deals. Employees like that would be gems to the company. But is that always the case? Is a hardworking employee who cares about the business everything that the boss needs? Obviously not.

Going beyond efficiency and diligence, whether it’s an advantage to hire family members depends very much on one important factor. Do they recognise you as their boss or a lesser “equal”? If the answer is the former, then family members are indeed an asset to the company. You lead and they follow keenly. Problems arise when employees see themselves as having special privileges or even authority superseding the boss’. They can be working hard on their own accord, but what about your instructions?

Sure, there may be some employers who just let someone in the company run the show while they take a backseat, issuing cheques and signing documents and that’s about it. If you’re that sort of boss and you have reliable family members doing everything on your behalf, then, you might want to spend more time on the golf course. Many employees refer to these family executives as “second boss”. They are the de facto bosses; just not the owners of the business.

Things wouldn’t work out so well for you if you were a handson boss and every purchase you make is challenged, every decision you make is questioned, debated about or simply ignored. Worse things can happen when the privileged employee has no qualms about losing his/her temper in front of you, hurling threats and insults as if you were the lowest form of life. It’s times like these that you may start to ponder over the wisdom of letting family members get into your office based solely on their diligence and enthusiasm. It may be more worthwhile paying strangers to take your orders.