Small family owned businesses - slave drivers?

[longnecker]

Originally Posted by Mystique13

And I never had problems with "worker rights" in smaller companies. I had something to ask, I went straight to the manager, supervisor or the owner/partner. There was no HR baloney and run around skits. The answer was either yes, or no. Right to the point. No 19th century robber baron wanna bees from Ivy League schools prancing around like clowns with cigars in their fancy overly tight suits. They're all like the stereotype from Mad Men or Downton Abbey.
"And the servants(workers) have to use THAT entrance"... Yea ok.. absolute cretins.

You are so right there I work for a family owned business and have ALL those family members phone numbers listed in my cell phone. They do pickup when I call.

[Mystique13]

OK look at this: smaller companies are more dependent on their workers so they will value them MORE than an F500. Everyone and their mother thinks F500 is the place to be. It's the name, the prestige, the "marketing". Looks cool on the resume. But having been at F500, they have a major turnover, and you seriously have to fight your way to the top.In smaller companies you can become indispensable, you wear many hats and absorb everything. Your value is greater in smaller companies. They think twice about letting you go or firing you. You also connect more to the people so getting along with coworkers becomes more important. I have made some long term acquaintances in small companies that have come in useful in both business and socially. You definitely learn the business, and all of it. In large places, you can just "hide" behind your work if you're not C level.

In the end, the knowledge you gain and the social relationships (networking) is what profits you more than some fancy name on your resume. Knowledge is power that nobody can take away. BTW, large company HR just give a boilerplate reference, nothing too personal. That means if you performed really well and C-level people who were on your team are no longer there, your reference won't be too great. I have never had a bad or "lukewarm" reference from a smaller company. I know if I work somewhere and perform well, I want a more "personal" reference, not some HR bs scheit.

I hate to say it but F500 love Ivy Leaguers and trust fund people. They are so biased on that. If you have small company experience they look down on you. It doesn't matter if you were the right hand or you were married to the boss! You'll notice how the F500 job ads all say "minimum 8 years experience working for C level at large corporation" or similar elitist language. I'm like WTF? Really? like I said "Downton Abbey".

[cdubs3201]

Originally Posted by Mystique13

Totally agree. F500 are mostly tyrant run dictatorships. I briefly temped for a few well known ones in the 90s. I also interviewed with many in the 90s. They want knee scraping lackeys and headnodders.

I had one guy who thought he was Napoleon. He used to habitually page people on the loudspeaker during lunch time, during breaks and especially when he knew people were in the restroom. He used to scream, throw stuff and had a potty mouth all day non stop. People celebrated with champagne when he had a heart attack, that's how much they admired him. This was Top 10 law firm whose clients included Disney, Madonna and Leonard Bernstein, to name only a few off a long list.
He made Steve Jobs look like a saint.

I worked for F500 company and it was nothing like you describe, no ivy leaguers, it was a top 100 company to work for many years in a row.

If anything I stood out, ranked top 5% among hundreds of sales reps. Now my boss compares me to 3 other people who have been with the company 5 years (to my almost 1 year) and asks why I'm not producing as much as them. Is the answer not so clear? Any moron could tell.

Originally Posted by andywire

I've worked for corporations that want to pay everyone crap, and work everyone like dogs. I mainly stick with smaller, family run businesses. The work environments can be stressful, and they generally expect more out of you, but they have the decency to compensate you accordingly. I have also found smaller companies depend on people with a more well rounded background, experience level and skillset. Large companies love to pigeonhole you into narrow positions with little upward potential.

My company is small family owned and they're exactly the way you described in bold.

[oberon_1]

Originally Posted by cdubs3201

I had this conversation last weekend with some friends. I've been at my company now about a year now and it's had it's extreme ups and downs. As a family owned business of about 90 people it's a very high stress environment. The company is doing very well, very fast growing, but still the owner/management of this company feel the need to demand super long hours, impossible deadlines, and threaten sales staff of being let go if they don't meet their seemingly high expectations.

Yeah, is known to be happening is small, family owned companies. Its a well known fact. However, thinking little more, its known to happen in large, public owned companies as well. The similarities are quite amazing...

Some friends of mine also work for smaller family owned businesses and they claim to have similar experiences.

My friends too! One works for IBM and another is with HP...

I can't help but think as the economy shows signs of unemployment rate decline (I can see it on the frontlines as my company deals with HR and hiring staffs), more and more companies are hiring and it'll be tougher for companies who treat employees this way to get away with it.

Nice, wishful thinking. Fell free to go ahead with this mindset if it makes you feel better!

No one should be threatened their job unless their absolutely serious (my company hasn't fired anyone in 5 years) or they deserve to be fired.

Agreed