Is the solution to the work/life balance challenge working with family and friends? Work/life balance is one of the most talked about topics in recent years. Everyone is getting involved in the discussion ... staff want to know how to achieve it and management debate its effect on productivity and profitability. Perhaps we are looking at it the wrong way. Instead of learning to balance two competing forces, maybe we need to find a way to combine them.
Working with your partner is one answer to the question "how do I fit everything into my hectic life?" This is a theme that emerged from my recent survey on "Working with family and friends". Instead of work being something that gets in the way of our relationships, many people are turning it into a way of having career satisfaction and relationship satisfaction.
With the shrinking candidate pool and the increased use of networking as a job searching tool, it appears to be only a matter of time before more of us start working with people we know. So who's doing it and how do they make it work?
Who's doing it?
The most common "working arrangements" were joint business owners (36%) followed by manager/employee relationships (30%) and co-workers (20%). The most common "personal circumstances" were spouses (26%), long term friends (16%) and siblings (13%). The majority of these working relationships are close, with 75% saying they interact daily.
Working with family and friends is becoming so popular people are going back for more, with 39% saying they had done it once or twice and another 39% saying they had 3 or more experiences. Only 22% said they haven't done it and would not consider doing it.
Who owns the business doesn't seem to matter, with fairly equal numbers of people working in family run businesses and corporate structures. Gender also makes no difference with men and women scoring similar levels of participation and satisfaction. Business people in small/micro organisations seem to be embracing the concept most enthusiastically, with nearly half the respondents from that category.
Why are they doing it?
The most popular reason people end up working together is they start a business together (36%), followed by one person helped the other get the job (25%) and joining the family business (20%).
The main advantages of working with family and friends seem to be more involvement in decision making (59%), a greater level of passion for their work (56%) and a more friendly environment (51%). Interestingly, the benefit of "less training required" only scored 16%.
These are important points for employers to consider. There is a danger that in the pursuit of work/life balance, many of their high achieving staff are turning their backs on job security to go it alone. They are looking for an environment where they feel passionate about what they do, can have a say and work with people they like.
Does it help or hinder your career?
Who you know does seem to help you get started with 43% stating the relationship helped them get the job. However, 62% felt it had no effect on their career opportunities and only 15% said it was a factor in their decision to leave the organisation.
The biggest disadvantage to these arrangements is the overlap between work and personal lives (83%), followed a long way back by the perception of favouritism (38%), difficulty in giving/receiving honest feedback (31%) and pressure to perform or work longer hours (30%).
Overall, the experience of working with family and friends was positive for most (67%), neutral for some (23%) and negative for only a few (10%).
How do organisations feel about it?
Most organisations are undecided on the subject with 70% stating the companies they've worked for "neither encourage or discourage it". Anecdotal evidence is that most employers don't mind, as long as it doesn't involve a manager/employee relationship where the parties are romantically linked. Perhaps this is another reason couples are going out on their own to achieve their work/life balance goals.
This view is also reflected in the frequency of these relationships at work. Only 9% said they were very common, with 50% seeing them as somewhat common and 41% thought they were unusual.
How do you make it work?
The most important factor in the success of these relationships is the individuals themselves. The majority (81%) of respondents said it all depends on the people involved. That was followed by 39% who thought having clear guidelines was the answer. Interestingly, only 10% said having the two people at the same level in the organisation was a factor.
However, it seems the higher the level of interaction the more successful the relationship is, with those people who interacted infrequently more likely to rate the experience as negative.
Making it known you have another type of relationship with a work colleague helps too. Everyone agreed with this statement, they just differed on the timing. One third said they would automatically make their relationships known to others and the rest said they mention it if it's relevant or comes up.
With work/life balance set to continue as a major issue, we need to start looking at what we can do to combine people's desire for good relationships with their need for satisfying work. Encouraging couples (and others) to work together appears to be one way.
In conclusion, the benefits for employers are many if you can replicate some of the factors that drive people to go out and start a business with their partner ... the result would be passionate staff who want to be involved and value their work colleagues.
So don't make the mistake of discounting a group of people from the already small candidate pool simply because they already know each other. A better solution if you are concerned about workplace relationships is to put in place policies that make it clear how these working relationships should operate.
Buy Karen Schmidt's Audio Seminar CD from the Resource Centre:
What It Takes To Engage The Generations At Work