‘Our Company is a Family’ by Szymon Janiak

The post was originally published in Polish on Szymon’s LinkedIn profile. Szymon kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.

Indeed, a company is just like a family:

• When you need support or a raise, you hear that this is not the best time and you are left alone with your problems.
• If you make a mistake, it is pointed out to you and you suffer severe consequences.
• When you no longer meet expectations and deliver, you are unscrupulously fired and your place goes to a new person.

Either the people who say this have had an extremely difficult childhood or let’s admit once and for all that this comparison is complete nonsense.

Let’s stop stretching reality. Work is work and family is family. They have little in common.

The comments section had to add:

Should we fire everyone from the PR and HR departments?

– Łukasz Stochniał, Senior Specialist at PKP Energetyka

 

There is an old anecdote: An employer fires an employee and tells him: ‘You were like a son to me: ungrateful, demanding and lazy.’

– Katarzyna Sobanska-Helman, CEO at BeOnBoard Interim Management

I am much more compelled by the comparison of a company to a football team where everyone has their role to play, fights for their position in the team, gives as much as they can, and finds out whether there is room for them or not. It’s up to you whether you’re successful as a defender at Barcelona or Glasgow Rangers.

– Jakub Boczek, Founder at Synerise

Family 4.0. After all, we ‘fire’ our partners more and more often if they ‘fail’ something in the relationship; and we get disappointed with our children who, in return, reproach us for real or supposed neglect. Dynamics is similar to that in a company. So maybe it’s fair to say ‘Family like a company’ after all.

– Anna Streżyńska, ex-Minister of Digital Affairs of Poland