In the course of my somewhat chequered career in marketing and sales, I worked for a range of small medium businesses. One of the oft quoted platitudes from business owners was "we're family here" mostly said to entice employees to work enormous hours for no extra cash, to make unreasonable demands rather than requests and to create a general sense of guilt as in: we gave you a jobyou owe us everything' . This approach is often coupled with vague promises of future rewards.
It makes you wonder what type of family these people had!! As an employee, working conditions like that generally bring the response: " If that's how you treat your family, I'd rather be an orphan!"
So let's ask the multimillion dollar question that most business owners are really wanting to answer when they behave like this: "What does it take to have employees do their best work and for everyone to profit?"
Well, integrity is a good start. In western countries slave labour has been abolished for quite some time. So if you truly intend to create a workplace that feels like home in the best possible sense then it's time to get creative!
Carmen's Fine Foods in Australia provides an inspiring example of what's possible. Ever had the pleasure of an office nanny your car washed every fortnight or a boss who actually asks on a scale of one to ten, how stressed are you?' each week and then does something about it? Hmmm I didn't think so!! (And for the scrooges out there Carmen's has virtually NO staff turnover ) wouldn't you rather invest in keeping your team loving their work, than hating you and leaving as a result??
Just a thought as someone who has sat on both sides of the fence (maybe its time to dismantle the fence too!!).