Of course, the problem with an employer calling themselves a family is that they've completely misappropriated the word.

Family is love without choice, allowing for behaviour you wouldn't put up with elsewhere.

It's caring because you put family needs above your own.

It's taking the flack, because your shoulders can bear it, and you know family is a safe space for your loved ones to vent.

And that's just in a happy family.

What about unhappy families?

To say 'we're a family' means you want employees to show that behaviour, not that you'll reciprocate.

It's only personal, until it's not personal - when employees want the things you aren't prepared to give, or when you make a business decision that works against their personal circumstances.

If instead you are an employer who does genuinely care about your people, and I'm happy to say I partner many businesses like this, you don't need to use the word Family.

Instead you can show how you care through trust and respect, through enabling your people to be their best, through rewarding fairly and by being appropriately flexible.

By giving your people what they need, and seeing their success in return, while balancing what your business can provide.

Those are the words to sing about when you want to employ great people.

As someone rightly put it, no-one wants the cult in culture.

#recruitment