How Far Should a Small Business Owner Go?

When the people that work for you need your help, as they invariably do from time to time, how far should that help go? There is a fine line between a helping hand and creating a dependency.

When you have a small business or early stage company, your employees are what make or break it for you.

Frequently, I have been asked by business owners how far should they go in helping employees solve their personal problems? What should they do, and how much should they actually get involved in the personal lives of their employees? I have never seen anything written about how far a business owner should go in helping solve the problems of those that work for them. This can be especially difficult as many business owners point out to me that their employees are just like family!

One small business owner that I mentor has asked a couple of times for advice on this very matter. She’s the owner of a small residential construction firm, doing a combination of remodels and building residences designed be ‘big name’ architects too. Her well-trained and tightly knit crew is what allows her to compete in this challenging space.

Recently her foreman of 8 years came to her with ‘template’ mid-life crisis problems, coupled with an unrelated medical issue. The first crisis issue required time away from work, and the second required a sizable loan to cover a medical emergency.  This was not the first time the foreman had asked for a loan, and on previous occasions the business owner had accommodated him with small loans, which had always been paid back, but were never as large as the one recently to cover medical bills.

Had this business owner, who sincerely cares about the well being of her employees, already created a dependency, by being receptive and helpful to financial cries for help in the past? Has the foreman come to expect and depend on her help, instead of carefully managing his finances?

These are some guidelines I have discussed with business owners on several occasions, which have worked well for them:

• If giving extra time off for personal reasons, make sure you provide the opportunity for the employee to ‘pay back’ lost time in return. Time off requests can include the invitation to ‘cover’ for other employees when they need extra time away from work. This nurtures an attitude of helping each other, and you’ll find the requests for time off will begin to come with an arrangement already made with another employee to take on added responsibility, while the employee takes that unscheduled time off.    

• In giving a loan to an employee, whether big or small, it’s important to make sure you orchestrate a realistic opportunity to repay the loan. An advance on pay-day with extra work-it-off times over a reasonable period of time are probably the most common. However even these simple arrangements can get out of hand if you let them, so it’s up to the business owner to draw a line quite clearly and remind employees to make this an occasional request, and not expect it to become a habit! Should the occasion arise where you are willing and able to help a loyal employee with a larger expense, my suggestion is to do it with a written legal contract, with security, exactly as a bank would require. Casual promises can become bitter feelings downstream. 

• When loaning ‘things’ to an employee, I have two rules; return it in the condition you receive it, and return it when you agree to return it. This ranges from gas in the borrowed car, a sharpened chainsaw blade, electronic equipment etc., oh, and those nice leather gloves….. 

It’s up to the business owner to have their guidelines in mind long before things get out of hand. I’ve been flexible with time, made small and large loans through the years with employees, and have always been paid back. I’m a patsy for helping those that have helped make my business a success; however I know it’s up to me to not be taken advantage of, and to know the difference between a helping hand and creating a dependency.

In my real life story above, the business owner advised her foreman to make a deal and work out payments directly with the hospital, which fortunately for all concerned, the hospital was willing to do (perhaps a good lesson for any of us….)

What guidelines do you have in place with your employees when dealing with requests for time away from work and help with expenses?