Stop Calling Your Business a Family

The temptation can be hard to resist, I know. It’s easy to see how ‘family’ can be used for good in shaping the perception of your company in the minds of the public, staff, and prospective employees. After all, “family” often evokes positive emotions such as loyalty, trust, and a myriad of others. And that’s exactly why you should stop doing it.

There’s something about familial language that strikes a deep chord in us. The longing to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, to be known, just to name a few. Therein lies the problem. The ties that bind the family nucleus together are a profoundly deep phenomenon. We sacrifice for our families. We’re vulnerable with one another. We ask much of them. Are you beginning to see the problem? As much as “here we’re family” can communicate positive things to your audience, it can also carry with it a host of red flags and send potential hires to the hills.

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t strive to cultivate healthy work environments that incorporate a lot of what’s been listed above. However, we can achieve this and communicate it in terms that are more effective. For us, we’ve replaced familial language with interpersonal descriptors. For example, we often tell people that we’re laid back but we still push each other to be better with processes that hold everyone accountable. As a boss, it’s important to let your people know that you intend to challenge them and hold them accountable without making them feel as if you see yourself as the ‘company dad’. You don’t want that.

Go poke around the internet for information on ‘quiet quitting’. Dealer’s choice on where you go (so long as your listening to the people who are quitting). Medium, YouTube, Tiktok– all of these are filled with people talking about this new phenomenon. It’s complicated and there’s a number of factors, but one steady beat echoing throughout the discourse is people feeling as if they’re having too much asked of them for too little recognition or compensation. I won’t presume that I know the figures behind how many of these employers use family language, but I’m more interested in that constant refrain of being asked too much of.

You see, invoking the family metaphor for your workplace environment lends itself far too easily to systems that would abuse the fundamental elements of family to demand too much of their workers as if their jobs were their families. Not only that, but many people grew up in environments where the term “family” carries the opposite of what you hope for in using it. We live and learn by association. Go look into Walter Lippmann’s theories on “stereotypes” sometime. We all come from different experiences, and whether you like it or not those experiences often do more in building our perception of family than some fundamentals or ideals.

So yes, fight to cultivate a healthy work environment where people love coming to work every day and are proud to be a part of the work they do. I only ask that you consider thinking differently about the way you communicate it if you often find yourself appealing to the language of family to do it. It might take a bit of work, but you’ll be glad you did. Your HR department and your employees will thank you.