The Dark Side of Saying Work Is ‘Like a Family’

When I hear something like “we’re like family here”, I silently complete the analogy: We’ll foist obligations upon you, expect your unconditional devotion, disrespect your boundaries, and be bitter if you prioritize something above us. Many families are dysfunctional. Likening them to on-the-job relationships inadvertently reveals the ways in which work can be too. 

Joe Pinsker, writing in The Atlantic