I am always fascinated by people who are able to work with their families. Or even work more productively and harmoniously with members of their family than with anyone else.

My wife has a running joke with the wonderful teenagers that if you want to “see Dad’s head explode” just pitch up at his office.

I don’t know why but I find it quite difficult to merge Family Stephen with Work Stephen. The two are not quite separate people, but it sometimes feels like they are (although Grootes Grumpiness is a common feature of both…).

I’ve been able to keep the times where the two merge relatively few and far between. And, crucially, at big-enough gatherings where there was enough dilution.

But other people see it completely differently.

It emerged this morning that Saul Saltzman, the son of the founders of Dis-Chem, Ivan and Lynette Saltzman, has resigned from the board. He will still, I presume, be a shareholder.

But he must have spent most of his working life at Dis-Chem in some way or other.

There is quite a long history (which I’m sure will one day become a book, or perhaps another book) of family-owned businesses in our retail arena.

The most famous is probably Pick n Pay, started by Raymond Ackerman but involving various members of the second and third generation. While they had a really good run in more recent times, they’ve fallen behind the competition.

It might be easy to blame the family structure for that, especially because Shoprite has not had the same issues Pick n Pay has had.

But I think it’s probably hard to know for sure.

Bell Equipment, founded by Irvine Bell in 1954 to service cane farmers, clearly involved his wife, his brother and his brother-in-law. Just last month Bell’s grandson, Ashley Bell, resigned as CEO to concentrate on another business he had founded previously.

In the process this family has built an international behemoth, a company that operates in 80 countries.

There must be incredible benefits to being part of one of these families. You should, I presume, all trust each other. There must be great joy in working towards a common goal, something that will outlive you. And when it comes to managing money and making decisions, you will all know how each other thinks.

And if you’re the Trump family, where the sons and sons-in-law all seem to be growing incredibly rich through graft, crypto scams and goodness knows what else, what’s not to like?

I do think if you’re going to do something even slightly illegal or unethical, which is clearly what the Trump tribe is doing, then it must help to be related to each other.

There’s probably not much chance that your son will snitch on you. Which explains the Trumps perfectly (and the Mafia).

I do worry a little though about working in a family firm.

Imagine being a bright young thing with an eye on the top job when you’re offered a position there. You might already know there will be a limit to how far you can go if you’re not part of the company’s literal DNA.

I think as most industries have become so much more competitive you probably can’t afford to give even the slightest hint that you are not a proper meritocracy. You would miss out on talent that other people can grab.

One of the great joys of having a family is that even if you have absolutely the worst day at work, where you have fought with everyone and been publicly humiliated and lost the company a huge amount of money through your own stupidity, at least when you get home it all stops. You can stop thinking about it. I would no longer be the idiot who cost us our bonuses, I would just be Dad again.

And it goes the other way too.

How often have you had one of those difficult mornings with the kids and the spouse and the dog that weed in the passage (and on you) and breathed a sigh of relief when you leave that all behind and go into an office where no one knows anything about that heartless thing you said that kicked it all off?

I mean, this might be taking it too far, but what do you think the Saltzmans and the Bells and the Ackermans talked about on family holidays? Their golf handicap? The latest Softail configuration?

Or how to get a lower-cost headache tablet, the perfect shade of yellow for an earth-moving machine or the best design for a shelf of washing powder?

There are plenty of people I know and really enjoy who work in family firms and really enjoy it. They’re clearly part of something and they’re really motivated by it.

Part of me envies them.

But for me, it would just make my head explode. DM