Family in the Workplace 101

Ahhh, Family! There's nothing quite like it! One might conjure up a vision or two of bustling gatherings with chatter, arguments and good food - a roulade of little blessings and curses. Oftentimes, if the right mood is set and the willingness is there, a work environment can be equally familial. The problem that most have seen with creating a more "friendly" environment at work is that when the fine line of work | home gets blurred, hierarchical relationships tend to evolve in less concrete ways. But, the key here is to extract the positive aspects of a familial interaction in the workplace in order to create a happy and homey environment. The difference in interactions between co-workers can be sensed by patients, and happy workers are more efficient workers. That old cliche statement, remember?!

And now...to delve into another cliche statement, namely that of not being able to work WITH family members. To that I say, "Nonsense!" Smiles Northridge is a very happily-run family business. Dr. Hovsepian (the dentist) and I are sisters and we actually really ENJOY working with each other! *toothy grin*  Our personalities complement each other. I'm the Chatty Cathy and she's the Patient Patty. We both have the same goals, the same ideals, the same pride of ownership in the practice and...the same smile! We feed off of each other's energies and pick each other up if either of us needs a boost. We take turns in grabbing the Starbucks coffee in the mornings or lunch. We take the time to listen to the patients and to make sure they love the way the office smells, looks and feels along with how they're treated from the moment they walk in through the door. And? The patients can feel that we're sisters (some may call us twins, but I wouldn't go so far) and it makes them feel like home. They may think of their own siblings or their parents or, potentially, of people in their family who work together, as well. This isn't to say that non-family workplaces are sub par (perish the thought!); it's just to note that when a family is functional (as opposed to dysfunctional, obviously!) in the workplace, there is true value added to the business.

With the family mindset swirling through our brains in each of our daily interactions here at Smiles Northridge, we realize that making patients feel like they're at home has become a priority of sorts. The little things matter, like...remembering a patient's name when they call in...remembering a patient's birthday...following up with events in their life...making them realize that they're each special as individuals. The energy you put into a business is the energy that comes out of it...and the energy that you attract to the business, as well. A true motto to swear by! As always, bottom-line-fanatics will point out that maintaining a homely environment may be detrimental to the display of professionalism... that somehow, showing people that you care about their families and their lives means you cannot charge them for a service. But, essentially those patients who seek to be treated on a more personal level are the ones who will stick around as your loyal clientele.
With that said, family and family environments aren't so bad, eh? :-)