Owners: You Ever Have Employees Do Work At Your Home? Cons?

A related story.

When I was a GM of an integrator, the owner parked his boat in the warehouse one weekend. This was not the first or only strange thing he did but certainly one of the weirdest. 

I go to him and tell him he has to move the boat. It's (literally) obstructing our ability to do work and it's absurd to stick this in the face of the techs. He was not angry or anything nor did he seem to appreciate the problem as his response simply was "Where else can I put it?"

It's good that you recognize the potential problem/sensitivity. Figure out which of the techs would be least concerned and use them. Maybe give a small cash bonus as well.

This is a tuff one. I grew up in the alarm industry with my father being the business owner. I worked along side our techs for many years. Anytime they had to work at one of his properties it got kind of awkward. He owns several rental properties and anytime he buys a new house he puts a system in. After having that experience, when I bought my first house I put the system in myself. There’s nothing wrong with doing something for yourself like buying a new house or new car or new boat. It’s one of the few perks you get as a successful business owner who’s putting it all on the line. Try and separate your home life from your work life though. If you have a tech you trust to not gossip to make it akward than ask them to come by and help you. If not. Go hire an electrician to help you pull the cable and you can mount the devices. 

Years ago the owner of the company I worked for built a new custom house.  I would say it was about 6k sq ft and we installed everything.   Alarm, ELAN home systems distributed audio and video, custom home theater with 200+ inch screen, central vac, all the network/phone/cable TV.   I didn't really care about his house or how big it was.  I was more concerned how he could have us on his house project for months and the company could survive.  I knew he wasn't paying the company for our work.  

Never Mix Business with Home

Always keep the 2 separate , creates a level of disrespect, unhappiness, ungratefulness, disgruntlement

Employees need to stay at the level of employment

create s a culture of dissatisfaction at the work level and jealousy , contention

you have to create a earned level of respect in the work environment, not contempt or disrespect

I know many company's which use their employees to work for them on thier own homes but i hear the comments from them and it is not always good.

but it depends on the relationship you the owner have earned with your employees or business culture

some work , some don't

It is a matter of the culture you the owner have created with your employees

and how well you the employer treat your help

Reward or just another Job

like all relationships you have to really analyze the situation, Good Relationships work well and create a respectful work relationship

We are a small company, with only 4 field techs. My 2 installers followed me from our prior company once I was able to bring them on. I treat them well.

My senior tech has only been here a couple months but he has been in management so I think he would understand.

Maybe I just get my teenager to help me and I do not have to regret something. A couple of weekends in the attic may be better than losing a tech.

Please don’t do this.  I have been embedded at our owner’s last 3 houses which take up 25% of my time and make up 0% of my financially measurable performance. The disruption to the work force is unbelievable.  PMs and technicians assigned to the projects at owner’s residence call it the kiss of death.  It starts with an owner saying “I pay these people anyways so they can do this one little project” and ends with a full time staff of 5 technicians supporting a Vietnam style quagmire.  Everyone in the company will take a “The Emperor’s New Clothes” approach to addressing this work derailment.

Again, please don’t go down this path.

The following assumes that you reward your employees financially for the amount of effort they put forth and that your success is partly due to their efforts. The more input that an employee can put forth towards your business, the more they should be rewarded:



Who cares, just have them do it and dont think anything of it. It should just be a normal job for them as long as you are paying them like any other job.

First of all, you earned a decent place to live, you should never be ashamed of it to anyone, not even your employees. Heck, one day you should have them install cameras in your Ferarri garage too! You should never make excuses or feel bad about what you have achieved. You made sacrifices and worked smarter and harder than most people which got you to where you are today.

Your employees should see your success and if they have the right attitude about it, they should see this as an oppurtunity that if they work hard, they can also be rewarded financially. If anything, this should be a great motivator for them.

In my experience it all depends on the attitude and personality of your employee(s). Some can handle this type of situation, and others can't. In the past I've had employees who can get very jealous, and can't understand why the boss has nice things. This type of attitude can poison the workplace quickly. I've always found that the best employees easily comprehend these types of situations. They are team players and understand the hierarchy of command and $.

As a general rule, I try separate personal and business. If your employees don't live the same lifestyle as you, there can be hard feelings.

This really all depends on whether or not your business is residential and commercial or just commercial. I have always said and never been proven wrong: You can take a residential tech and train them on commercial but it's really hard to take a soley commercial tech and put them in residential. They will tear your house down. I have done work for owners personal properties over the years and one thing to remember if you are the tech doing the work, do the best work you have ever done.

I Agree , thier should always be a hierarchy of pay and reward

But never let jealousy, contempt or unfair pay practices go on , then expect the employee's to further reward the boss, owner, management

I see in general that smaller business's dont see the attitude untill its over and larger company's just dont care , they have enough money to buffer all the mistakes to keep on with the boys club and treat work like another employee, they have policys, handbooks, p

coming from both ends of the spectrum , I have seen both ends bottom to top

usually management is not in touch with the cost of living or actual attitude of contempt until its too late , festered and you have a strike, shake up in the office or shop , or your just fed up and lost your best employees, or managers due to not paying attention

I've seen a lot of comments saying "Some employees will understand, some might not", but I think one aspect is the attitude of spending on the employees the owner has.  If the the owner enforces a company culture of austerity at work and then flaunts their personal wealth it's more likely to be a problem. How they feel might come down to how generous the company is. Competitive pay... small perks it provides (tools, coffee, snacks, training time, etc.).    

In one of my first jobs the owner asked me to come do some work at his house.  I was in his garage trying really hard to maneuver a ladder without scratching his Dodge Viper when he comes in and gives me some speech about how my job is just as important as his because without guys like me the company wouldn't have anything.  I was sitting there thinking 1) if my job is so important why aren't I out doing it somewhere that is making the company money instead of working at his house and 2) if my job is just as important as his why don't I drive a Dodge Viper?   I even asked him that and he got quiet and left the garage...I was looking for a job a couple weeks later.

Three things come to mind here:

1. Company journey: If your employees know how hard you work, see you working alongside them, and you share your company journey with them, they will not begrudge you having nice things. If your employees are treated fairly, they will celebrate with you that you have achieved some success and they by their efforts as well are helping make the company successful. And why wouldn't the boss want the best crew possible - HIS - working on his home?

2. Company culture: If you have employees who would begrudge your success, is this really an employee you want working for you at all? If you have this type of employee, I would argue that they should be let go immediately as they would be toxic to the company culture in other many areas.

3. Separation of Interests: My feeling is that you should absolutely personally pay your company to have work done. It might feel like like paying yourself, but it allows you to keep the interests of the company separate from the interests of the ownership. Lots of company owners play loosey-goosey with having their employees do work on their personal projects. As a C-Corporation, my understanding is that this is unethical - I'll leave the legality of it to the lawyers. I'm not sure how this works with S-Corp or LLCs.  But for real effort, I would always make sure I paid the company for work done.

I love this topic. It is a bone of contention with my business partner and I. I do not believe that any good can come of a technician working in your house. Jealousy will breed contempt.

I own a medium sized commercial integration company. Many of my guys have residential experience, so they can do the work  I chose to hire a different company to do the work. I the 1000 I paid was much better than the trouble the work could have caused  Additionally an employee can't say no to your requests, so they are in a bad situation  

What happens when you think your tech isn't following IPVM and he screenshots the thread and texts it to you, Boss is this you?

LOL

Never say or do anything in areas where you will be ashamed of or not willing to take responsibility for .

Consequences of our own actions

If you don't want the folks you hired to go to other people's homes and do installs go to your residence or office and do the same thing you hired the wrong people.

For the record, the question was never about trusting my employees. I would have ZERO issue with having my crew do the work based on quality and trust. I know I could tell them what needed to be done and leave for the day and everything would be done right.

The question was more of, do employees resent the boss for having a nicer house, etc. 

Are there actually people out there who resent their boss or the owner of their company for having nicer things than they do? That seems crazy to me.

My boss arrived at work the other day in a brand new Lamborghini. I said, WOW, that's an amazing car! He replied, "if you work hard, put in lots of hours and strive for excellence, I'll buy another one next year"

some employees may be motivated by their bosses good fortune, if given proper credit:

I’m a really private person, I don’t usually share too much info with colleagues.

Previously, I asked our two apprentices if they would like some work at the weekend.

They duly turned up at my house, not knowing where they would be working. I made them bacon sandwiches at break time.

we all worked very hard all day (me alongside them, but they planned and executed the job. It didn’t matter if they made little mistakes.

I paid them a full engineer’s wage out of my own pocket cash at the end of each day so they made more than twice what they would normally make.

there was no resentment and they learned stuff they had never done and benefitted from my experience. I learned a lot about them personally too (even though we often worked together). This helped me to help them on their career development path.

Would I ever do it in works time and pay them in their wages - No

The fact I paid them from my own wallet and worked at least as hard as them, I believe earned me some respect.

it is really hard to classify all the same , some this action creates thankfulness and a sense of comrade , bond , but i have over the years seen the opposite affect .

Very Important to keep separation of Business and Friendship , they don't mix with employees

always a jealousy or unfairness

best to set policy's, live by principles, keep a division between work and family , and friend s

never put your wealth out in the open for the public to get disgruntled over .

always creates dissension in the ranks ( lack of respect )

Friendship is one thing , Employee relationships are another

having a drink or lunch or dinner is one thing , but don't set yourself up for disappointment

Their always has to be a order or you have dis-function and employees who are alway' s not happy

Do what YOU, Do because you like what you do , not because of the pay others get

or you will never be happy and always discontent

Vision , Direction , Persuit of Happiness , path to ____________

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 has been moved to its own 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