Counselor honors the top industry workplaces through an exclusive survey and rankings. Find out what makes The Book Company a great place to work!

5. The Book Company (asi/41010),
Delray Beach, FL

Doug Greenhut, president/owner, The Book Company 

At The Book Company, PTO days are like points on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

They don’t matter.

Employees can take as much time off as they need to. If they want to go on a missionary trip in Egypt or spend a month studying yoga in India, they’re encouraged. If they want to visit family across the country, they might even have their plane ticket paid for.

“Life is short,” says Doug Greenhut, president and owner of The Book Company. “You really have to take advantage of and appreciate what you’ve got. If I show respect and trust my employees, then they’ll show it to the business.”

Founding the Delray Beach, FL-based supplier in 1997, Greenhut says he started out like most business owners – he hired people to do certain jobs. As the company evolved and grew, Greenhut realized it was more efficient and strategic to get to know each person and then design jobs or fit them into roles that best suited their strengths. As a result, he says that each of his 20 employees have achieved tremendous personal growth over the years, which has subsequently boosted the company’s bottom line.

“We don’t really fill positions; as we see a need, we think of who can satisfy it,” Greenhut says. “By working together for a long time, everybody understands their own individual strengths, as well as the strengths of their co-workers. We keep a casual environment where all doors are open and we communicate openly.”

Despite job titles, Greenhut stresses that there’s no hierarchy in the company. Nobody reports to someone else – it’s a collaborative effort. As the head of the company, his primary role is to keep staff connected and maintain a sense of common identity. The unique structure must be working because only one employee has left in the last 15 years, Greenhut says, and that’s because she got married and relocated.

“The idea is to get each employee to treat the business as if it was their own,” Greenhut says. “In order to do that, you have to provide flexibility, honest communication and respect. If you support the business, why shouldn’t the business support you?”

Although the “one for all, all for one” company culture has developed organically over the past 20 years, Greenhut does foster that spirit through various team-building exercises and activities. The group has participated in an Iron Chef cooking competition, belted their hearts out in karaoke contests and even sailed a 50-foot catamaran in a holiday boat parade. “We try to give them a unique experience each year,” Greenhut says. “The theme is we expose them to something they wouldn’t normally do on their own.”

Everybody still talks about the scavenger hunt, in which the company was split into teams and given a list of 100 items to photograph around Delray Beach. This wasn’t your typical “I spy” game; rather, it consisted of taking fun, unusual photos, whether from behind the counter at Starbucks while the barista served coffee, or piled into a new car on a dealership lot or making a human pyramid on the beach.

The memories and experiences from that day have helped shape The Book Company into a tight-knit family built upon mutual respect and appreciation. The staff knows that Greenhut expects very high levels of performance and commitment, as all are trusted to achieve the overriding goal of always improving the customer experience. In return, he respects that personal life is as important as work life. Putting limits on time off undermines that balance, he says.

“It’s all about personal responsibility,” Greenhut says. “Everyone understands how important their role is in the big picture. If they don’t do their part, the rest of the team lets them know they’re dropping the ball. I feel very lucky to work with the people I have.”