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Unpopular opinion: hiring family members is killing small businesses in Detroit
My uncle runs a construction crew over on Gratiot. He told me last week he has to let his nephew go because the guy showed up late 3 times in one week. But he can't because it's family. Now his crew morale is tanked and he's losing contracts. On the other hand, my buddy hired his cousin for his food truck and that guy works harder than anyone. So when does loyalty help and when does it hurt? What's your cutoff for keeping family on payroll?
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william_garcia2d ago
Depends on the person, not the bloodline - my own cousin once ate 30% of my food truck's profits in a month, and I couldn't fire him without my mom giving me the silent treatment at Thanksgiving. That loyalty cuts both ways, which is probably why half of Detroit's small biz owners are either thriving with family help or quietly drowning from it. At what point does keeping peace at Sunday dinner cost you your Tuesday paycheck?
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skyler_jackson272d ago
Man, that's rough. I've seen that kind of thing tear apart people's finances and families too. It's a real gut punch when the person you're trying to help is the same one making it harder to keep the lights on. There's no easy answer, but sometimes you gotta pick between a bad Tuesday and a bad Sunday, and that's a terrible choice to have to make.
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