7y
As the co-owner of busHive along with my wife, I am very proud of what our team has achieved this year. The majority of our employees have been here 7 years or longer, and year to date, this is by far the highest revenue that we have ever recorded after over 20 years in business.
The only way to achieve what we have as a small software company is with a great group of people who really enjoy working together.
I will admit that I have learned a lot of lessons over 2 decades when it comes to understanding what makes an employee a good fit for our team. For those that are, I think they would agree that busHive is a great place to work, and that my wife and I are great owners to work for. Any time you have a team of people trying to work together, sometimes there is friction. I try really hard to resolve any issues in a positive way. Many times I have asked to meet an employee for coffee so we can talk to get on the same page, or provided written analysis of my point of view to try to reach people who were struggling.
Several years ago I got feedback from a long time employee that he felt there were times I allowed people to stay on too long when it was obvious to the people around them that they weren't executing at a high enough level. Over the years I have let several people go who I genuinely liked as people, but I have never let anyone go without consulting their peers to get perspective from multiple points of view. To the person being let go, it may feel as if it is "out of the blue", but considering the cost of re-hiring, re-training, and unemployment insurance, it is never in my interest to fire a productive long term employee who is respected by their peers.