An alternative to the giant corporate, perhaps....by Charlotte Appleby

At the end of Eighth week this summer, I emerged from the dark exam hall relieved to have finals behind me, but with a niggling worry in the back of my mind. With no more student loan instalments and no work lined up for the summer, my new-found post-exam freedom was not very free at all.

No income meant no fun. And I was definitely going to have some fun before I had to face the realities of the very grown up world of work. So, I did that thing I had hoped I would never have to do: I phoned home. “ Mum, Dad, I wondered if you knew anyone who might need an assistant, skivy, dog walker, typist, barman for a couple of months. Bit strapped for cash here.” I could feel the smugness radiating down the line: “ We’ll have an ask around dear, see if we can help you out,” which translates as “Ha-ha! You might be 22 years old and all cocky and independent, but you still need us. We still rule!” Or something equally Doctor Evil-like.

But it was worth putting up with their smugness, because after a couple of weeks my Dad spoke to a friend of his who had a family business based in Turkey. This guy quite liked the idea of having an extra pair English speaker over the summer months, since his business was international and so conducted in English and many of his employees disappeared on holiday for most of August.

So that’s how I found myself, four days later, unpacking my best business-like clothes in an Istanbul hotel, where I was to live for the next few weeks. The situation was bizarre and not always easy. Getting my exam results and only having the Concierge to tell them to, and to celebrate with, made me feel particularly lonely. And work often continued till late in the evening – when, even with the time difference, some of my friend in the UK finished before me. But the money was good and so I just tried to keep my eye on that goal.

What really struck me during my time there was the marked difference between this family firm and the large corporations I was used to working for, and where most people I knew would be working for after Uni.

There were many plus points to my new working environment. The hours were much more flexible: there were working mums who could turn up at ten because they dropped the kids at school first. No one judged them less dedicated or less valuable. There was also the MBA who took days off for research whenever she needed, rather than under some prescribed timetable. Instead of groaning at her absence, most colleagues were eager to help with her work and offer encouragement.

It seemed that once you are in the firm, you are in the family. And the kind of trust and understanding normally found in a family, were applied to the staff as well. This in turn led to a similar attitude between colleagues as well as between family and staff. However, the negatives of a close-knit family were equally present. Everyone knew each other’s business – even I, without speaking Turkish, was party to a sizeable amount of gossip. If someone had a new girlfriend, child or house, judgement was passed openly in the way one might comment about a brother or sister.

There was also the issue of pay and promotion. Many people were bitter about the lack of feedback or remuneration they received for extra hours or landing a new client. In the past, when things had been harder, pay had been late or even delayed for months at a time. No HR systems were available where employees could voice concerns about these issues. Indeed, there was a general feeling that if you complained out loud it would be taken as a personal insult to the family who ran the company.

Nonetheless, I have never met a group of co-workers who were as happy going out to dinner together as they were discussing new strategy. Sitting in the front of the car of one of my young co-workers whilst three others chattered in the back, I felt like the group of twenty-somethings were old friends from school not new recruits who barely knew each other!

So despite the problems of working in this small family run company, I returned from my trip enamoured by the family-like atmosphere. The level of employees’ dedication and the flexible working arrangements are unsurpassed in any organisation I have seen or heard about. And so, on my return to the UK, I not only felt much happier about my bank balance, but had had my eyes opened about the alternatives to the classic graduate recruitment routes taken in the UK.

Many of the big corporates who I had thought about working for claim to foster a family-like environment. But, for me, a real family environment could only be created in a smaller private company: only then will you know not just peoples names and departments but also that they, say, spend every weekend breeding pedigree dogs. For me, this difference is enough to sacrifice the higher pay and higher security and to start my job search at the small to mid-size end of the market.