When Susie Carder gave her daughter Amanda a summer job in her business coaching company, the teenager knew office gossip was forbidden. On Amanda's second day, Carder caught her in the break room, complaining — Carder describes it as talking smack — about how little her mother was paying her.
"I said, 'excuse me, you're not happy with the amount of money you're making?' She said no. I said, 'OK, well I guess you should find somewhere else to work that will pay you what you deserve!'" says Carder, whose company that bears her name is based in San Diego.
With that, Amanda was fired.
In this Saturday, April 13, 2019, photo, Susie Carder and her daughter, Amanda, pose fort a photo in Santa Monica, Calif. Business owners often hire their teenagers to get work experience, earn some money and add to their resumes. But the presence of an owner’s child can require a balancing act, not only for parent and teen, but also everyone else in the company. (AP PhotoDamian Dovarganes)
Business owners often hire their teenagers to get work experience, earn some money and add to their resumes. But the presence of an owner's child can require a balancing act, not only for parent and teen, but also everyone else in the company.
Owners have to be bosses, not parents. Staffers may be unsure about how to treat the owner's child and hesitate to report problems. That means owners need to give extra encouragement to employees to ensure the teens are held to the same standards as every other worker.
Carder didn't doubt her decision to fire her daughter; she was resolute about standing by her company's values. As a mother, though, Carder was fuming. But when she got home, Amanda said, "Mom before you say anything, I apologize. I was disrespectful. You were giving me an opportunity and support and I was wrong."
In this Saturday, April 13, 2019, photo, Susie Carder, right, and her daughter, Amanda, pose for a photo in Santa Monica, Calif. Many owners, like Susie, are tough bosses for their kids. She didn’t doubt her decision to fire her daughter; she was resolute about standing by her company’s values. As a mother, though, Carder was fuming. But when she got home, Amanda said, “Mom before you say anything, I apologize. I was disrespectful. You were giving me an opportunity and support and I was wrong.” (AP PhotoDamian Dovarganes)
Carder hugged her daughter but the dismissal stood. The experience may have helped in the long run; after attending Harvard University and the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania, Amanda went to work for an investment banking firm.
Jim Skinner found that memories of working in his father's company helped him be understanding even as he had to be a tough boss to his three sons. On several occasions, Skinner's oldest son, James, got upset when he had to stay late at Skinner's firm, A&C Pest Management; James had plans and in the moment, they were more important than the job. Skinner says he learned to stay calm when there was friction.
"We would talk about it and I would try to explain that sometimes, it is what it is. After college, he started to take life and business a lot more seriously," says Skinner, co-owner of the East Meadow, New York-based business. All three of his sons worked at the company while in school and after graduation.
In this Saturday, April 13, 2019, photo, Susie Carder, right, hugs her daughter, Amanda, as they pose for a photo in Santa Monica, Calif. Many owners, like Susie, are tough bosses for their kids. She didn’t doubt her decision to fire her daughter; she was resolute about standing by her company’s values. As a mother, though, Carder was fuming. But when she got home, Amanda said, “Mom before you say anything, I apologize. I was disrespectful. You were giving me an opportunity and support and I was wrong.” (AP PhotoDamian Dovarganes)
A common problem occurs when employees are afraid to tell the boss a child's work or behavior falls short. Laura Smith brought her 15-year-old son Jordan into her company, All-Star Cleaning Services, and over the course of two months, he worked with many employees. Then Smith learned from the general manager that her son's work wasn't good; he was trying hard but his idea of what was clean really wasn't clean. Co-workers were re-cleaning what he had done.
Smith, who says giving feedback is an integral part of her Fort Collins, Colorado-based business, was shocked that no one talked to her, or to her son. That was a hard lesson for her.
"I think that everyone wanted working here to not be a negative experience" for Jordan, Smith says. "My mistake was not checking in with the people who were working with him."
Before an owner's child starts work, the boss must set expectations for everyone in the business, and also let them know that there won't be any repercussions if they have to write up or report the teen, says David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, a human resources provider based in Norwalk, Connecticut.
"An owner needs to say, 'you have to make sure that if there are any issues or concerns that you come to me," says Lewis. He's a veteran of being an owner/boss/parent; both his children worked in his company.
Although Mike Young encouraged managers of his Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers stores in Iowa to hold his children accountable, staffers still felt that "this is the owner's kid. I'm not going to write them up."
Young recalls a morning when he knew his daughter Katie had arrived late to work. The store manager shrugged it off. When Young asked, "what would you have done if she weren't my kid?" the manager admitted he would have disciplined her.
Owners often have to deal with typical parent/teen issues on the job, and work issues when they're home. Alex Boatman's daughter, Victoria, sometimes found it hard to stop talking to other co-workers and instead clear the tables at Boatman's Hwy 55 Burgers, Shakes & Fries restaurant in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. It was a situation not unlike her lingering in front of the family room TV when there were chores to be done.
"I would occasionally have to remind her that the way she could act or talk around the house wouldn't fly at the restaurant," Boatman says.
Sometimes, there were hurt feelings on both sides, and Victoria, still angry at her dad when they got home, would ask her mother to intervene. At one point, Boatman explained to Victoria that this wasn't just a job; he had given up a salary and savings to start the restaurant and he wanted it to succeed.
"I was able to communicate what was at stake. I think that helped," he says.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States vetoed a widely backed U.N. resolution Thursday that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two abstentions, from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. U.S. allies France, Japan and South Korea supported the resolution.
The strong support the Palestinians received reflects not only the growing number of countries recognizing their statehood but almost certainly the global support for Palestinians facing a humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month.
The resolution would have recommended that the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, where there are no vetoes, approve Palestine becoming the 194th member of the United Nations. Some 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, so its admission would have been approved, likely by a much higher number of countries.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council that the veto “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties."
The United States has “been very clear consistently that premature actions in New York — even with the best intentions — will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said.
His voice breaking at times, Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council after the vote: “The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination.”
“We will not stop in our effort,” he said. “The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real. Perhaps they see it as far away, but we see it as near.”
This is the second Palestinian attempt for full membership and comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first delivered the Palestinian Authority’s application for U.N. membership in 2011. It failed because the Palestinians didn’t get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.
They went to the General Assembly and succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a non-member observer state in 2012. That opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join U.N. and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.
Algerian U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama, the Arab representative on the council who introduced the resolution, called Palestine’s admission “a critical step toward rectifying a longstanding injustice" and said that “peace will come from Palestine’s inclusion, not from its exclusion.”
In explaining the U.S. veto, Wood said there are “unresolved questions” on whether Palestine meets the criteria to be considered a state. He pointed to Hamas still exerting power and influence in the Gaza Strip, which is a key part of the state envisioned by the Palestinians.
Wood stressed that the U.S. commitment to a two-state solution, where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace, is the only path for security for both sides and for Israel to establish relations with all its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.
“The United States is committed to intensifying its engagement with the Palestinians and the rest of the region, not only to address the current crisis in Gaza, but to advance a political settlement that will create a path to Palestinian statehood and membership in the United Nations,” he said.
Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, reiterated the commitment to a two-state solution but asserted that Israel believes Palestine "is a permanent strategic threat."
"Israel will do its best to block the sovereignty of a Palestinian state and to make sure that the Palestinian people are exiled away from their homeland or remain under its occupation forever,” he said.
He demanded of the council and diplomats crowded in the chamber: “What will the international community do? What will you do?”
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been stalled for years, and Israel’s right-wing government is dominated by hard-liners who oppose Palestinian statehood.
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan called the resolution “disconnected to the reality on the ground” and warned that it “will cause only destruction for years to come and harm any chance for future dialogue.”
Six months after the Oct. 7 attack by the Hamas militant group, which controlled Gaza, and the killing of 1,200 people in “the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” he accused the Security Council of seeking “to reward the perpetrators of these atrocities with statehood.”
Israel’s military offensive in response has killed over 32,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and destroyed much of the territory, which speaker after speaker denounced Thursday.
After the vote, Erdan thanked the United States and particularly President Joe Biden “for standing up for truth and morality in the face of hypocrisy and politics.”
He called the Palestinian Authority — which controls the West Bank and the U.S. wants to see take over Gaza where Hamas still has sway — “a terror supporting entity.”
The Israeli U.N. ambassador referred to the requirements for U.N. membership – accepting the obligations in the U.N. Charter and being a “peace-loving” state.
“How can you say seriously that the Palestinians are peace loving? How?” Erdan asked. “The Palestinians are paying terrorists, paying them to slaughter us. None of their leaders condemns terrorism, nor the Oct. 7 massacre. They call Hamas their brothers.”
Despite the Palestinian failure to meet the criteria for U.N. membership, Erdan said most council members supported it.
“It’s very sad because your vote will only embolden Palestinian rejectionism every more and make peace almost impossible,” he said.
Algeria's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations Amar Bendjama speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour holds tears while speaking during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Representatives of member countries take votes during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour, left, and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speak before a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Representatives of member countries take votes during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood votes against resolution during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
