Did you ever own a small business,with employees?

[Robusta]

Just curious as to how you felt about your employees and their,"obligation" to you. I spent my life working for the government, but did work partime and after I retired for a couple of small businesses.
Every time it ended badly.
Without fail, every business owner waxed on and on about how valuble his employees were, unfortunately that never translated to actually meaning anything more than demanding full value from the employee.

If there was a bad week get sent home with no pay
If it was a good week you are forced to work out of schedule no notice overtime.

The business owner goes to Cancun, drives a Mercedes ,and an Escalade. Refuses to do proper maintenance on equipment and blames employees for down time.

His son comes of age to operate machinery and suddenly the loyal employee is on a shovel.

I most recently worked for a guy driving a Medicab. Myself and two other drivers would be out watching the world burn, and attempting to protect the brand, while the owner is back at the office drinking and screwing the dispatcher.

I was expected to work like a partner until the poop hit the fan, then I was an employee.

I know that mega Corp also does nasty unethical things to its workforce, but at least there it is not personal.

 

[Gary O']

I enjoyed my last 30 yrs of employment at a small mfg firm

I had been laid off at a very large (world known) place but those I'd reported to hired me (after they too had been let go)

the fun was the ability to get things done
sometimes right in the hallway, not waiting for a cluster of meetings to occur

loved, loved the hands on

sorry about your bitter experience

 

[Mrs. Robinson]

We were small business owners for over 34 years. We always treated our employees very well-we must have,most stayed with us forever. Our painter started with us 5 months after we took over the business and was still with us the day we sold. We actually consulted with him before we sold-we were a Union shop and we knew that the new owner would not be. But our painter was fine with it-he wanted to take his pension money and do something else for a change. We still hear from our employees on a regular basis-they really are like family to us. One of them calls us every Thanksgiving and Christmas. That`s too bad that you had a crummy experience.