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Education

StreetSmarts SM

Finding the balance with

family on the payroll

By Dee and Emily Karawadra In today's hyper-connected world, there is no such thing
Impact PaySystem as leaving work behind at the office. It is not easy to keep
a healthy balance by making sure time spent outside of
n our last article, we wrote about the father/daugh- work isn't overtaken by work, but doing so is essential.
ter dynamic at work. We featured Steve Duniec, This is our biggest challenge.
whose daughters are now working in his company
I with him. To continue with that theme, we will dis- Although Morgan, now an adult, does not live with us, we
cuss in this article some of the pros and cons of working still spend a lot of time outside of the office together for
together. dinners, family events and vacations. Despite knowing
how critical it is to refrain from focusing on work at these
Dee and I have worked together for more than 13 years. It family occasions, we find ourselves discussing work all
took a lot of battles and compromising to figure out our the time outside of the office. This isn't fair to the other
respective places at work and at home. When we decided family members who have to constantly be subjected to
to bring our oldest daughter, Morgan, into the family shop talk. When we forget this, our other kids will say,
business of merchant services three years ago, it disrupted "No more business talk."
the balance that Emily and I had figured out. This was a
huge adjustment for both of us.
When you bring family members into your business
mix, it can be challenging. But the rewards outweigh
the challenges. Sorting out how to bring in a new family
member with the least amount of disruption, so we can
grow the business together to the benefit of everyone
depending on us has helped with our personal growth
and development.
Work-life balance

We have learned to balance our work interactions and
our personal interactions. We are both fortunate to have
a great relationship with Morgan. We have always been a
"say what's on your mind" family, keeping communication
a priority. We quickly realized that when working
together, open communication would continue to be key
to our success ‒ and to maintaining peace at home and at The Karawadra family, clockwise from right: Dee in flowered shirt,
the office.
Leena, Morgan, Maya and Emily.
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