Wholeheartedly agree. My business partner & I also made a conscious decision that our growth plan would not include hiring employees though, originally, this was not the case. We did it for all of the reasons you cite - and a bunch more.
Side Note to Obama: pick whatever threshold you want - $250K, $275K, whatever. We'll stay below it and do just fine. I didn't make all the sacrifices that every small business owner makes during the early, lean years just so that my pocket could be picked by politicians.
What we cannot produce ourselves, we sub out to other small pockets of people who, themselves, have "skin in the game". These other folks - small LLC or sub-S companies are usually a couple family members or friends that have formed their own little companies. All eager, strongly motivated and quality conscious. Because if they're not - their business and paycheck walks away.
I held Sr. Management positions at a large co in VT and subsequently in MA & NH. Additionally, I had the "pleasure" (NOT!) of serving on one of the corporate EEOC "committees" - and, also, survived the many hrs of requisite human resource meetings after having a couple "hostile workplace" charges lobbed at me. (How DARE I suggest the employees show up for work on-time and not take every Monday off to nurse their hangovers! And it was a terrible sin that I let 2 lovely, elderly women speak French to each other in the workplace.) And, just like you, I went thru a similar situation to yours where I spent a wasted day in front of a State Employment Commission goon who awarded unemployment benefits to this employee even though she refused the job offer we extended when the company was relocated. She was offered a job, given termination benefits when she refused and when these benefits dried up she filed a claim with the State board and won. Even though the company had done everything right and she was owed nothing.
When my biz partner & I started our company in 2000, we envisioned our growth to include hiring local talent and being a good, civic-minded, small town company. But not anymore. If you want to work for us now, it involves a lot more than just filling out an employment application and getting a paycheck. To share the reward, you're going to share the risk and be accountable for your own actions & work. Health care benefits, leave time requirements, all these new taxes and proposals being imposed each day by the clowns down there in DC. We have no more thoughts of growth through expansion of employee base. |
