Used to think hiring family was a shortcut for my shop on Gratiot

I brought my cousin on as a manager last spring to save on payroll, figuring loyalty beat experience. After six months of missed invoices and inventory gaps I realized familiarity doesn't equal competence. Has anyone else had to fire a relative and still keep Thanksgiving peace?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wendy4d ago

My cousin lasted two whole months before I had to let him go.

knight.dylan3d ago

wait two months isn't really that long for a family member. my cousin stayed with me for like 6 months before we figured things out. maybe you gave up too soon?

mark4363d ago

Used to be the opposite actually, I always thought blood was thicker than water and that family would never screw you over. Then I let my brother-in-law run the front desk at my place for about four months and watched customers walk out because he was always on his phone and never greeted anyone right. It was a hard lesson but now I see it way differently, family can actually make things worse because you feel guilty calling them out on small stuff until it piles up into a big mess. You end up losing money and hurting their feelings anyway, so it's honestly better to just hire strangers and keep family at the cookouts where they belong. From experience, the peace at Thanksgiving is a lot quieter when you never hired them in the first place.