Imagine working for a family business. It could get kind of complicated dealing with the family drama and hierarchy while just trying to do your job!

In this story, one construction drafter is in that exact situation, but his boss gives him some advice that makes the situation a whole lot easier to handle. Plus, the resulting family drama was pretty entertaining!

Let’s read all about it.

Ok, you’re the “boss”.

Years ago I worked as a construction drafter for a mall. Y’know, the biggest one in the US?

Most probably don’t know, but a family owns it, because they’re obsessed with owning malls like the huge one in Canada, etc.

Their structure of authority goes: Dad and oldest brother – Absolute authority. Middle brothers – heads of marketing and purchasing. Youngest brother – hot headed jerk in leasing (not even the head of leasing!).

They all live and work in New York, but use us as well because they do work in our mall and a new one they’re currently still building.

The younger brother had a request.

So I get a request from YB to change the floor plan of an existing store that’s planning to move, for a proposal of a new store moving in.

I dread his emails. He’s a huge jerk with a Napoleon complex, and nobody likes dealing with him.

An interesting detail is that he sketched out it would absorb the Back of House corridor.

The problem is that according to the International Building Code (at the time), you are required by law to include a BOH corridor for any tenant over 24,999sf. This would be well over 26,000sf once it took the shape he requested.

He sent the younger brother two options.

Well, he’s the “boss”, so I create the draft and send it to him, but I do mention the IBC statute and offer a second design that would be close to the square footage but keep the BOH, and this was also what my manager and I agreed wild be best.

Side note: In my department, authority went (from low to high this time) Me and laterally my manager, our boss – Project Manager, his boss – Facility Manager, Dad and Oldest Brother – the head honchos from earlier. (The management of these places was a nightmare of a tree)

Well, within minutes of my reply, hot headed YB calls my boss and is apparently irate. Yelling and swearing and saying stuff like “how dare he have the gall to talk back to me!?”

The boss offered some advice.

My boss called me in after that, and even though we never really hit it off (I don’t think he ever liked me, because we were too similar, but my manager only wanted me out of the applicants so he had no choice) he wasn’t yelling at me, for once.

He tried to keep a cool head and told me “YB is a jerk and always does this. So you can’t do that when he requests something because he freaks the heck out, regardless if you were right, which you are.”

Ooh, point one for me!

“When he emails you again, which I know he will, I want you to Cc OB.”

Complying was very satisfying.

Can. Do.

Once OB got his copy, the hammer came down like Thor lost his Natalie Portman.

OB is berating YB in a now COMPANY WIDE email, yelling at him for pulling that higher rank stuff on me, and calling him an idiot for not knowing the relevant statute in the IBC, and also for not listening to me for trying to save his butt, and finally for creating an issue that had to make its way to him, the big boy boss.

Point two to me.

Now he never has to get emails from the younger brother again.

Minutes later, I got a separate email from OB, informing me I was absolutely correct, thanking me for Cc’ing him, and that YB had ticked him off too many times and was now no longer allowed to contact me, only the other drafters in New York.

Game. Set. Match.

Working for that family business sounds like a nightmare, but at least the older brother seems to know what he’s talking about.

Let’ see how Reddit reacted to this story.

I think the older brother already has gone far in the company.

Here’s the perspective of another person who worked for the same family.

This is often true.

Yes, I believe it is.

If you work for a family business, letting the family argue amongst themselves can be surprisingly effective.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.