Some family members were speaking to me recently about my kids being involved in a family business one day and what do I feel about that.  I think that that has many problems and one of the problems with hiring family is that invariably you are too soft on family.  I don’t think that being soft on people is always good.  Of course there are times when you need a bit of love, tenderness and sympathy and that is something you get within a family and it is something you can have for trusted members of your workforce as well.  There is no doubt, and I can tell you honestly, that I feel passionately about the futures of some of my employees.  Those who I know do a good job and keep a department rock solid for me are the ones I believe in.  I believe that most of the talented staff members in my firm, even if they are not attorneys, could easily become attorneys.  The fact of the matter is if you are one of my star workers you would already have all the attributes to become an attorney even if you don’t have the actual degree.  I could name off the top of my head at least 5 of my staff right away who are not attorneys or candidate attorneys who would make perfect attorneys if they were prepared to make the sacrifice and study for many years via UNISA (obviously not always easy once you have had children).  

The problem with hiring family is that one tends to be too soft on them and quite honestly there are times when you need to be criticised and corrected.  On the one hand I don’t want my children to be shouted at and told that they are morons, fools or doing something stupid, but if you don’t ever work for anybody else how will you ever face the criticism that you may need to face if you go straight and work for family?  

If I look at my own life – and I don’t think anybody would say that I have been unsuccessful – I still had my biology teacher at Hyde Park High School, Mrs Scott, tell me that I was a moron who would never achieve anything in life.  I’ve still have my run-ins with people, being criticised for the work I was doing and told that I was wrong, etc and I don’t think you would ever get that type of criticism, which is sometimes useful, if you worked for example for your father.  

I would think one of the worse possible things you could ever do is to work for your own father or mother, with the possible exception of my own mother who would happily criticise her own children night and day, because I think you are going to miss out on some things that you need to hear.  

That does not mean for a second that Mrs Scott was right in what she said.  In fact, it shows how clearly ill-suited to teaching she was, but if I was not protected from people who insulted me, inappropriately, incorrectly then why should my children?  Should one always be able to just glide through life without any criticism, anybody saying anything, whether right or wrong?  A boss does have the right to criticise their staff and there is no requirement in law by the way that that criticism has to be justified or correct.  I have certainly criticised staff incorrectly in the past and will do so in the future, whether by mistake or simply not understanding the story properly, but that is what happens in any normal business.  Sometimes you get criticised for things that you did not do incorrectly, sometimes you get praised for things you did not actually do and where perhaps somebody else should have been praised.  Why should my own children be spared the realities of life and how would they be better if everything just went perfectly and nobody ever corrected the little prince or princess?