Family Business

1. Have you ever worked for a family-run business? What was your experience? If you haven't, what do you think working for a family-run business is like? What are the pros and cons?

2. Are there any famous family-owned businesses in your town/city? What relationship do they have with their employees, do you think?

3. Has anyone in your workplace ever said 'We are just one big family here'? How did you react?

Read article here: Family Business Reading

4. Do you recognise any of the the three downsides given to trying to create a family atmosphere at work (blurred work-life boundaries, exploitation of committed employees, departing employees treated as traitors)? Give an example from a time when you have seen these things.

5. Does your current company provide free breakfasts, meditation classes, happy hours, or other benefits in order to keep employees satisfied? If not, should it?

6. Do you keep in touch with former colleagues? Is this encouraged/discouraged/not addressed by your current company? 

7. How aware are you of your company's purpose? Does your company have a mission statement? Do you know what it is? 

8. Would an out-of-hours email ban, a four-day week, or taking all of your holiday allowance make you a more efficient employee? If not, what would?

9. What other ways are there to creating loyal employees? In times of economic hardship, do employers need to worry about this?

10. What typically happens when a colleague leaves a company in your country? Would you ever consider returning to a former company? Do people from your country, in general, ever do this?

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Situation

You are an employee at Andrew Corporation. You work long hours for little reward and are thinking of leaving the company. In an effort to reduce staff turnover, the CEO (your teacher) has introduced free meditation classes, free dry-cleaning, and happy hours - but this has had little effect. As the employee representative, approach the CEO with some of your ideas on how to improve staff/company relationships.

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Discuss quotes

"People who build family businesses are not classically trained. They have to deal with an enormous amount of politics. You think corporate politics are tough? Go work for your dad or mom."

 – Gary Vaynerchuk

"Starting a business with your brother either ends business or ends brotherhood."

 – Amit Kalantri

"You have family-owned businesses that have been around for over 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives in fact for even a few decades."

 – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”

--- Tim Ferriss

"Maybe it was because my resignation letter was well written, and this attracted the attention of the factory supervisor. They kept me on and gave me a promotion to head up my own newly created department."

--- Zhou Qunfei

Student Handout PDF: Family Business

Photo: Tatutati

Workplace Vigilante

1. What does a vigilante do? And a workplace vigilante?

2. What irritating behaviour do you notice at your place of work? Do any of these behaviours transgress company policy?

3. Order the following according to seriousness:

a) returning from break two minutes late

b) leaving food in the office fridge too long

c) failing to refill the photocopier

d) not putting things back in the right place

e) swiping company property

f) eating someone else's food

g) defrauding the company of money

4. Is there anyone who attempts to deal with the above issues? Does your place of work have a self-appointed enforcer?

Read article here: Workplace Vigilante

5. What is your reaction?

6. According to the article, workplace vigilantes are most likely to be found in large organisations. Do you think this is true? If so, why?

7. What motivates a workplace vigilante? Is it company loyalty? Why would anyone want to monitor the temperature in the office, recycling, and food ordering (See comments section below article).

8. What downsides are there to being a vigilante? If you knew that a colleague was a workplace vigilante, how would you behave around them?

9. Do bosses welcome the presence of vigilantes in the workforce? In your experience, are vigilantes disruptive, or useful lieutenants for management?

10. What are the alternatives to reporting a colleague to management?

11. Does your company have a complaints procedure? Is the procedure set up to deal with small transgressions?

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Situation

Your office has bacon sandwiches delivered on Wednesday mornings. A colleague has made a list of names and ticks them off when they receive a sandwich - she does this as she believes some people are having two sandwiches. Confide in another colleague (your teacher) about whether this should be happening and why.

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Discuss quotes

“When the law fails to serve us, we must serve as the law.” 

― Kenneth Eade

“One thing I learned as a journalist is that there is at least one disgruntled person in every workplace in America -- and at least double that number with a conscience. Hard as they try, they simply can't turn their heads away from an injustice when they see one taking place.” 

― Michael Moore

"A lot of these types of films - the vigilante or revenge drama - were so popular in the '70s because there was a feeling in the culture of loss of control." 

- James Wan

"The purpose of whistleblowing is to expose secret and wrongful acts by those in power in order to enable reform."

- Glenn Greenwald

"It's not everyday that a whistleblower is actually willing to be identified."

-Laura Poitras

Student Handout PDF: Office Vigilante