The Joy And Pain Of Working For A Family Owned Business.

We all know about the Kirima family. Though the saga has cooled off it was not a good sight all. But that is family for you. Unlike friends, you can only work with what ‘God’ has given you.

On another note, have you ever wondered how it is to work in a family run business like the one for Kirima? To be caught in the cross fire when things are not working? Many of us start our careers in small or medium sized firms mostly owned and run by the family.

I went out and interviewed a good friend who has worked in such a situation and this was his candid response.

My life working for the family.

I worked for a small family business for about six years. It had many ups and downs, especially when I was trying to compete for gratitude, amongst all of the family favoritism!

It was a Father-Daughter-Son operation, with about ten additional employees. The Son’s name sat proudly over the entrance to the business, but he was NOT a part of it! This left the Father and the Daughter, fighting in the wings, over the direction and the future of their concern.

The Son drew a substantial salary from the company, while he operated his own business in another part of the city. The Family business was quite small and the draw on funds, gave the Family Members, precedence over the non-family’ employees.

I was struggling with a low pay and two young children at the time, so I worked extra hard, as Manager, to keep my position and satisfy all; with this knowledge in hand, I was in fact, taken much advantage of!
I found that I had to reinvent my duties, so that I could be respected.

It did, however come naturally to me, as my survival depended on it! I had to make sure that I became irreplaceable, but it was difficult to do.

For some reason, the Father thought that he knew best and the Daughter thought the same! When ever anything went wrong, they would first, look to each other and if the blame could not be found there, they would look to me.

It was difficult for me to show them that everything was running smoothly, however, I learned, that they just wanted more profits to fuel their needs.

So I increased their sales and got them new customers. I even got back some of the customers that they had lost over the years. One day, I became very ill and could not go to work. They were not concerned with my well being and the fact that I had become the backbone of their company, was completely over their heads!

With all of their internal quarreling, they had grown oblivious to the fact that without me there, things would not run smoothly; Instead of showing me concern, they were very rude and thought that what ever I did for them, was neither here nor there; They thought that they could do it better themselves!

After three days of my absence, they started to realize that things were not going smoothly and they would call me regularly, for advice. Not only was I responsible for purchasing and management, I was also responsible for over half of their sales!

When I returned, after over a week, they told me that they could not believe how much business I generated for them and they praised me for all of my hard work! I received an absent King’s welcome!

Finally, I gained respect and was not taken for granted! I asked for a raise and I got it! Even though I was not family, in the future, I was treated almost like their absent son.

There you have it.

Have you ever worked for a family owned biashara and how was it?

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