> <i>Firstly, it’s important to remember that when I use the word “family,” I don’t mean the literal sense of the word.</i><p>Just don't use the word family then.<p>Since you didn't stop there, though...<p>Nah, your company isn't a family. Because when financial shit hits the fan everyone will split in every which direction and be very unlikely to ever interact with you again.<p>Culture, and a good and fair culture at that, is what companies should be striving for. Pretending to be a family when that won't be reciprocated 100% of the time (or at least nine-nines of the time, because hey, no family is perfect) like a real family is manipulative.<p>Scenario: I'm your VC and the latest numbers force me to tell you to lay off 75% of your employees. Go go gadget, deploy this "family" thing you speak of.
How many of your employees would come to work if you didn't pay them? How many of your employees would continue to work for you if they were offered twice the salary elsewhere? My guess is that none of them would, and while they may genuinely enjoy working for your company, they're really working there only because it's the best deal they can currently get.<p>From the other side: if your company's revenues suddenly plummeted, would you take on personal debt to pay your employees' salaries until sales improved, or would you lay off your employees?<p>See, it's not a family, it's a business.
I prefer the "we're not a family, we're a sport team" analogy. You're (1) together to achieve a specific goal and (2) expect everyone to perform to accomplish that goal.<p>There are similarities: you come together in times of difficulty. You have fun together. You support each other.<p>There are difference too. In a family, roles are diffuse. In a team, they're specific and critical. You don't, and can't, fire your uncle for his bad, racist jokes. You do fire that asshole at your workplace. A good team will understand everyone has slumps and challenges, but at some point, if you can't perform, you don't play.<p>A team comes together to play, to win. It's voluntary and it's goal driven. When I go to work, I want to be part of team. When I go home, I want to be part of a family. There's an important difference.
I assume he's probably second- or third-generation Korean-American, so maybe the word "family" doesn't invoke quite the same meaning to him as me, but I find it rather icky.<p>In Korea there have been companies, small and big, saying they're like families. Usually, that's a code word for saying "We expect you to sacrifice your life, including your health, time, and relationship to your <i>actual</i> family, for the good of the company, and not want anything in return."<p>I'm sure Edward Kim meant none of this, but still that's a metaphor I won't touch with a ten-foot pole in a corporate setting.
Yeah but there are downsides to that.<p>1. What if you already have a family? When it's 5'o clock, would you rather go home to your spouse and kids, or go on a company bar crawl?<p>2. I am friendly with people who I work with. But if we didn't work together, we'd have no reason to speak to each other. You're going to pass out on a lot of great workers if you insist everyone be your friend. Why can't a co-worker relationship suffice?<p>3. If you're company is too friendly, and begins to think alike, I'd be wary of groupthink.<p>4. That nickname thing seems like it'd get annoying fast.
<i>"...I only consider a couple of them close enough to call my brothers... ...My “brothers” know all about me and I them, just like my real sisters do..."</i><p>Subtle sexism aside: hanging out, enjoying being together and having nicknames does NOT make you a family, and this is where OP misses the point. And you expose the naivety here:<p><i>"As it turns out, making decisions to protect our family is often the best way for us to achieve our goals as a team."</i><p>And when those goals are not aligned? When a member of your "family" isn't playing as part of the "team" do you stand by them, or do you do what's best for your company. <i>Should</i> you? What happens when they prioritise their <i>real</i> family over the <i>company</i> one?<p>No, this is dangerous for your staff. You're selling something that you cannot deliver in the long run. When you're exposed you're going to really hurt people that I do think you care about.
"Area CEO Likes To Think Of Family As Small, Close-Knit Business": <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-ceo-likes-to-think-of-family-as-small-closekn,34852/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-ceo-likes-to-think-of-...</a>
Wait until you hire someone who seems perfect and (a couple years later) turns out to be the family's "black sheep". And have you ever noticed how clique-filled large family reunions can seem? I predict your coziness will disappear gradually as you grow.
>We eat meals in the office around the dining table.<p>Yes, teams never eat together<p>>Most everyone has nicknames for each other.<p>This is certainly a thing no athlete does.<p>>We take our shoes off in the office<p>You're right; athletes hate being comfortable<p>>Not everything we do together is all about work.<p>Again, you're so right. Sports teams do not ever hang out together outside of practice.
serious question: how many senior executives, long time employees, loved by their peers and core to the company culture, have you been forced to terminate?<p>maybe you've done it and your team is still tight like family. if so, good on you. in my experience, when that happens people realize that work is business, not personal. in a family, you can't terminate someone.
I'm confused by the notion that using nicknames mean you're substantially closer to someone than you would be as members of a team. This is, actually, extremely surprising to me, given my previous experience on sports teams! Sports, in particular, has it's fair share of intermittent shoelessness and chatting about other subjects as well.
Are you willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for me?<p>That's the only bar for this word. Other than that, you're just people linked together by checking accounts and employee contracts.<p>The only other organization I've worked for that matches that standard was the US Marine Corps. It's a head trip to leave that community and reintegrate into society.
Sounds more like a team than a family.<p>One of the primary distinguishing characteristics of a family is that members never exit the family once they are in. A second is that families are decidedly not meritocratic.
I wish you the best, but has it occurred to you that the inmates of a prison have meals around the same table, and if one can believe the movies they have nicknames, too?
Get your laptops off of your crotches. Macbooks especially run hot and you are heating your sexual reproductive organs. That is not good for your ability to procreate particularly in males. It can even have long-term effects.<p><a href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/17664.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/17664.php</a>
I'm not sure about the credibility of this link, but I would do the research myself.
As someone who was close to a real family who happens to operate a company together, I'd say the only thing that kept them together was the fact that they took great pains to separate business from family life.<p>The biggest challenge they had as a family was people taking the work roles home with them.
If it works for you and your fellow members then that's great. I enjoyed seeing a quick view of how your office runs. There are obvious downsides, but also obvious upsides. Sound's like a fun commune that actually makes some money!
> "Firstly, it’s important to remember that when I use the word 'family,' I don’t mean the literal sense of the word. 'Family' is a metaphor"
... AND then I stopped reading.
This is so infantilizing. I'm your employee. I'm not your child. We have an agreement - I do work for you, you pay me. I like you, otherwise I wouldn't work for you. But I'm not your family member. I don't want to spend every waking moment with you. I don't want to see you after work very often. I have my own life, with my own opinions, and my own thoughts, i.e. my own identity that exist outside of work at your company. Your company may be your life, that's fine. It isn't mine.
Your "normal day" photo shows people working on laptops in all sorts of uncomfortable positions.<p>Does being like a family preclude you from using desks and chairs like normal people, or I'm missing something?<p>Or maybe you work 10 minutes at a time and have a break. It's the only way I can imagine working in that space.