Should you hire friends or family?

I've done it. Is it nepotism? Is it healthy? Can you survive it? Maybe...

I grew up in a start-up office— a few, actually. My parents were serial entrepreneurs who ran businesses together and most of my early memories take place in the office or under my mom’s desk. I’d sit there in my Little Mermaid sleeping bag and take a nap under her desk while she ran board meetings. One year I decided to start my own business— bridal wear— and stapled a bunch of white printer paper to the clothes of another little girl whose mom worked in the office, and paraded her around taking orders for my custom couture. After that I made a bunch of watches out of the printer paper, fastening them around her wrist with Scotch tape and drawing out all the designs in our “catalog”, and went around the office taking orders for my luxury watch designs.

(Where I got the taste for finer things— bridal couture and luxury watches— at 5 or 6 years old is absolutely beyond me. I’d never seen either in real life in my life, but it gives me a chuckle that my friend group now spends a lot of time talking about, you guessed it, bridal wear and vintage timepieces.)

I was surrounded by people in the office that I genuinely felt like were my friends— or my family. I was 6, so my worldview looked a little different, but it wasn’t uncommon for them to be good friends with my family or to come over for dinner or go on trips with us. Sometimes the people were friends of my family’s before they worked there, oftentimes they were friends after. Even my grandpa (my number one newsletter reader! Hi and thank you, Grandpa!!) worked at the office for a bit. It was a huge mix of business, family and pleasure. It was the only way I knew.

At some point, by the time I ran my own business in 2020, that felt… less kosher.

I should also add that my parents met at work. Another thing that felt less kosher in 2020.

So what changed?