Those of you familiar with Bookishly will know that the way we do business is even more important to me than the products we make. I really believe that a successful business shouldn't have to come at the expense of the people that work there. This week I posted on our social media about this and I wanted to give it a permanent home here too. Here's some non-negotiables of working with Bookishly that we're proud of.
1. Work-life balance over all else. Work to live don’t live to work is a cliche I’m happy to live by. Flexibility is an easy thing to work into a business if you really want to. For parents for sure, but for everyone else too.
2. No unpaid overtime. I would be so embarrassed if my staff felt they had to work more than their scheduled hours for free. If the job’s not getting done in time that’s a separate issue for me to help figure out. No unpaid labour.
4. Bookishly serves the staff, not the other way around. Ultimately our whole reason for being is to be a nice place for a few people to make a living. The number of people has fluctuated over the years but ultimately the survival of the business is for the people that work there.
5. Being stressfully busy must never be permanent. It’s either seasonal or as we develop and grow. Never the norm. If the work load gets out of hand then we need to figure out what's next. More people? Different processes? We'll work it out together.
I honestly don't think any of these things should be difficult for a business. Perhaps there's an old-fashioned attitude that employees will take advantage if you give them half a chance, and that employers need to be strict and constantly vigilant to keep things running efficiently. But I just don't believe that's true. I think that when you treat people with trust and respect, they'll generally give you the same in return.
