Not That Kind of Family

"We're a family here." You've heard it, probably from someone who meant it warmly. This week, Michael Comyn takes the phrase more seriously than it usually gets taken — and asks the question nobody stops to ask first: which kind of family, exactly?

Because not every family is the good kind. Every office has its golden child, its black sheep, its uncle nobody sits near at Christmas. And even the good kind offers something no employer legally can, or should try to: love that isn't contingent on output. Drawing on years spent moving between organisations rather than living inside one, Michael asks what's really being borrowed when a workplace reaches for the warmest word in the language — and what it usually means when that word shows up loudest.

Gentle, a little mischievous, and not aimed at anyone who's ever said it sincerely.

Keywords/tags: workplace culture, organisational psychology, leadership language, company culture, employee relations, corporate cliché