Subscriber Discussion

Employees Rarely Understand Or See The Number Of Uncompensated Hours Or Level Of Commitment That Their (Typically) Small Business Owner Puts Into His Business

DL
David Leinenbach
•Sep 26, 2019

Employees rarely understand or see the number of uncompensated hours or level of commitment that their (typically) small business owner puts into his business. Most employees think entirely in terms of pay per hour and very few realize that a small business owner is always "On". 24/7. None of them understand what its like to come to work and be responsible for generating every single paycheck in the building, every single week. Most importantly of all, they fail to see the actual high levels of risk and pressure that a small business owner is under and must endure to keep the doors open.

So, when the business finally gets some traction, and does well (in spite of the statistical odds against it) and the owner takes back from the business occasionally to reward themselves for that constant pressure and risk, it is not only perfectly acceptable, but truly necessary in order for entrepreneurialism to exist and thrive in this country. Otherwise, why bother? Lets all just go work for Bezos or the Waltons.

And any employee who wants to discuss that further, whether that employee works for me or for someone else, is welcome to reach out for a more in depth conversation on this. Any time. Any day.

NOTICE: This comment was moved from an existing discussion: Owners: You Ever Have Employees Do Work At Your Home? Cons?

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JH
John Honovich
•Sep 26, 2019
IPVM

David, thanks, I think it was an interesting comment so I've made it its own post.

I think I can see both sides having been an 'owner' and an 'employee'. In particular, this comment:

responsible for generating every single paycheck in the building

Generally speaking, I don't think this is true. Good employees not only 'pay' for themselves, they often generate far more than they make.

I think the issue really comes when the owner is destroying value. Of course, this is subjective to how much or whether they are destroying value but I've lived through that as an integrator.

I think I've told this story before but when I was an integrator, the owner parked his boat in the middle of our warehouse, which was both literally and figurately disruptive to the employees.

Net/net, I don't have a single firm opinion on this and can see owners really being valuable and sometimes not so much.

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Daniel S-T
•Sep 26, 2019
In reply to John Honovich

Net/net, I don't have a single firm opinion on this and can see owners really being valuable and sometimes not so much.

You could say the same about some employees. It's a people thing, really. Some people are good, some not so much. Some care about others, some care about themselves.

I guess I am more or less in agreement with you, John. I can see both sides. I know there are owners/managers out there who care and put a lot of work in, but there are also those out there who think they don't need to do anything, and they should be able to reap the rewards simply because they are the owner/manager.

But the same can be said for employees. There are employees who will put the work in, help others out go above and beyond, and then there are employees who think they should be paid a premium wage for simply showing up and thinking they deserve it. There is some middle ground with both, of course. It's not quite black and white.

I personally can't really hate on an owner, or general manager because I don't really want to be that person. So how can I really get upset that they are doing so much better in life, financially, when I don't want to so what is necessary to be in that position myself. I can certainly not like how they may be doing things, and have in the past. But that's different. That usually has little to do with how nice of a car they drive, or the size of their house.

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