If An Employer Says They’ll “Treat You Like Family,” Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
Such a claim calls for a healthy dose of skepticism and a few key follow-up questions.
When my daughter officially entered toddlerhood, I found myself making frequent comparisons between her behavior and that of my company’s CEO. Both were highly unpredictable and stubbornly unresponsive to reasonable requests. Both behaved as though they were the center of the universe and were prone to temper tantrums when they didn’t get their way.
But at the end of the day, I had far more patience and grace (which, admittedly, was not always much) for my daughter than I did for my boss. For one thing, she was 18 months old. For another, I had birthed her from my own loins.
You could say that the CEO of that particular company treated his underlings “like family,” and you wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate. He made rules that were arbitrarily enforced. He yelled at us and took us for granted. He played favorites. He set high expectations that were often unreasonable, then shamed us when we failed to meet them.
Of course, I’m well aware that this is not what HR videos mean when they claim, “We’re like family!”
