The team at my work is so small that you know you’re gonna wreck a friend’s day off if you call out. We get a substantial employee discount so we can try all the products (even the expensive ones) and though it’s retail we all get above minimum wage plus tips. The owner took the whole staff to Pink Floyd, and gives a nice holiday bonus.
I owned a tattoo studio for 20 years before becoming a budtender, and never had more than three people working with me. Their percentage was calculated to share operating costs, and I could always make my own profits. I wanted them to prosper and have stable lives, one became a family member. It was an EXTREMELY small business, but we were all in it together.
This job feels very similar, being on just a slightly larger staff, but not corporate or with a ton of management. There are really only two non-management things to do (processes material or sell it) and both bosses will step in and do either when needed. When the workplace is really small there’s less a feeling of “us and them.” It’s just us and we get it done.
I’m an old now, and I’ve had some jobs where it was 100% clear that the people running things gave zero fucks about me or my life. It’s only me musing, but I think we need to feel appreciated as a human to be happy in a job, and I think that’s more likely in a small, privately or cooperatively owned business than in a corporation.
My RepubliDad often pointed out that I could have done WAY better at creating a financial empire by gouge and greed, but there’s no way to value simply enjoying what you do to earn money. If I could reliably walk with $200 a day OR feel like hey cool, I get to go in today and get just enough to have a basic good life I’d go with option 2. I don’t regret 30 years off choosing happiness over a big income.