Working with family isn't all fun & games.

Maybe I've developed a chip on my shoulder, but I've always felt there were connotations surrounding going into the family business. All of these circulating around a lack of education or effort into someone's career.

Of course, there are a lot of kids and grandkids who follow into a very corporate family business and can only get there or survive there due to attaining degrees of varying levels.

There's also an element of a silver spoon, which adds to the idea it's the easy route. Truthfully, I wish it was that simple.

I joined my dad's business in April 2017. Exactly 3 years ago. Before that, I was working a main job as a Visual Merchandiser for a fashion brand, whilst also attempting to crack the world of TV and Film as a camera operator. Usually, I'd be somewhere in between fighting a mannequin to get a fresh outfit on and being told by a Producer to cut playback on set.

Those were interesting times. I worked with some absolutely horrific people, who I hope I'll never have to see again. I'll hold on to those stories for another time.

Still, sometimes those 12 hours on set, working with people who made you want to swallow yourself whole there and then, are easier to get through than working with your dad. Sorry, dad.

I've gone into an environment that I've technically always been around since I was a child. There's this constant underlying pressure to already have 20 years worth of experience in the industry. It's a burden to compete to be as good as my dad, who has at least 38 years of actual experience in the game.

In practice, this is a lot heavier than it may read on a blog.

I can't tell you if I've done anything right at work in the past 3 years. Neither could my dad. We're very similar people. Both partially stubborn mixed with a hit of personal pride, ready to get our point across at any given moment. This leads to some battles that could honestly be sold on Pay Per View.

He's undefeated, as you could imagine.

And if it were a literal fight, I'm not making it to the end of the first round.

Ultimately, it can become a tiresome role. I don't think I'm the only son to follow his dad into business and supposedly get everything wrong along the way. Essentially, you're following to help grow the business and set new foundations up as well as make a career for yourself. But it's not uncommon to get shot down in trying to very slightly adapt procedures that have taken place over the last 20 odd years.

Some say it's the grandkid who makes the business the empire, and the great grandkid who loses it all. So what does the son do?

Well in my case, the son gets it in the neck for not putting enough sugar in their fathers coffee and then the silent treatment until the journey home, where any talk of random news resumes and the father/son relationship just about continues unharmed.

I wish I could say that hasn't happened. That I haven't managed to rile up my own dad at work for not adding enough sugar to a black coffee. But hand on heart, I think I've pulled that off over 5 times at least.

That's what working with family is. It's the hidden side. How do you separate home and work if home follows you to work? You can't.

My dad wouldn't snap at another employee for making a poor coffee. In fact, I don't think he'd even have another employee make him a coffee, bar me. With anyone else, it's an abuse of power. With me, it probably is too... but I'm his son. And honestly, I don't even mind making the coffees.

You're probably reading this thinking, Jesus Christ he's truly hurt over the coffee fiasco. You'd be right in some ways. My dad and I laugh about how hard we make each other's lives at times. It's all you can do when you both still see a good future working in the same environment.

Would I recommend it for the faint-hearted? Probably not.

If you're not going to get the freedom of a role and the opportunity to grow and make it your own, stay clear of the business. Maybe it'll look great on your CV, but you'd be surprised how much damage it can cause you if you don't approach the sticky situations in a certain manner that even I haven't worked out how to do after 3 years.

As I type this blog, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley is playing through my headphones. Do you realise how appropriate this song is? "Ever since I was little, ever since I was little it looked like fun. And it's no coincidence I've come."

When I was a kid, I was amazed at everything that went on in my dad's business. I understood nothing, but the lure of it got to me when I was 20, and I did follow.

The next song up is Linkin Park's 'Numb'. Which is also really appropriate. I'm not going to turn into Genius.com here, and start annotating the song whilst adding my own meaning's to others lyrics, but just know I very easily could.