We are living in a season when our Christian values are being questioned as to whether they have any worth in the modern world, and our lifestyles as Christians examined, to see whether we in fact live up to the standards our words demand of others. Our most powerful witness to our claim that Christ lives within us, is not our words, but a Christlike character lived in obedience to the word of God. This produces a quality of life and witness that differentiates us from those who live by the world’s standards, and establishes us as someone who others want to be like. Then, and only then, is our testimony likely to convince an unbeliever that Jesus Christ is a person worth following and surrendering ones life to, and our life reflect the character of God to others.

This article looks at some of the biblical instructions and scriptural principles that apply to how we should conduct ourselves in the workplace. Living to these standards will not only please God but almost certainly ensure us of greater impact and reward in our chosen career.     

   
God’s interested in what you do for work; He’s also interested in how you do it. The truth is, your prospects for the future are determined by your work ethic. Let’s look at the book of Proverbs and look at some work habits you may wish to avoid or acquire if you want God’s blessing.

Laziness. “I went past the field of the sluggard…the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins…I…learned a lesson…A little sleep…folding of the hands…and poverty will come on you like a bandit” (Pr 24:30-34 NIV). Laziness produces lack just as surely as a thief will rob you.

The Bible says lazy people are:

(a) Procrastinators. “A little sleep…folding of the hands.” They say, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” but tomorrow never comes.

(b) Expensive to maintain. “He who is slothful in his work is a brother to…a great destroyer.” They complain, cut corners, cripple businesses and cause hardship.

(c) Quitters. They quit before the job’s finished. “The lazy man does not roast his game” (Pr 12:27 NIV). He hunts the deer but he won’t clean it. Unfinished projects fill his life: half-built cupboards, half-painted rooms, half-tidied garages. Sound familiar?

(d) Masters of excuses. “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside!’ or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’” (Pr 22:13 NIV). When he runs out of credible excuses he goes for ridiculous ones. He “will not plough because of winter” (Pr 20:4 NKJV). “You want me to get sick going to work in this weather?” Or if it’s warm, “It’s way too nice for work!” Whatever your work, do it conscientiously. Don’t let laziness rob you of success.

When it comes to having a work ethic, “Go to the ant, consider its ways and be wise” (Pr 6:6 NIV). These tiny giants of industry teach us valuable principles for living. Observe three things about them:

(1) The ant “has no commander, no overseer or ruler” (Pr 6:7 NIV). Nobody has to get it out of bed in the morning or coax it to get moving. Nobody supervises its work or enforces quality standards on it. Nobody needs to micromanage its time on the job or make sure it starts punctually, puts in a full day, pulls its weight and doesn’t quit early. It’s self-motivated and driven by its own high standards, not by rules, regulations or the fear of being fired.

(2) It “stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest” (Pr 6:8 NIV). While everybody else is complaining about the heat (the weather, the economy, politics, etc.), the hard working ant just keeps preparing for the future. Later, in the more moderate temperatures of harvest time, it continues gathering. Disregarding the conditions, it works. Then while others are struggling to survive it feasts on the fruit of its labour. “Watch and learn,” is God’s counsel.

(3) The ant is no haphazard, disorganised drifter wandering around aimlessly, looking for something to do. He knows exactly what he’s there for and where and how to do it. He’s goal-directed, focused, determined and unstoppable. You can’t keep a good ant down! “Consider…and be wise” (Pr 6:6 NIV). “But my job’s a dead end,” you say. As long as you’re in this job do it “heartily, as to the Lord” (Col 3:23 NKJV). Prove yourself where you are and God will promote you to better things.

If you want to succeed in life practise honesty! A recent poll stated that 40% of workers admitted stealing on the job, and 20% felt justified! Their rationalising includes: “Everybody’s doing it, why shouldn’t I?” “The boss can afford it, he won’t miss it.” “It’s only small stuff, it won’t make any difference.” “The company owes me, I’m just taking what’s mine.” “I deserve it, I’ve worked hard and never been acknowledged.”

What does God’s Word say about this? “The wicked … earns deceptive wages.” God says deceiving your employer by stealing time and materials or delivering an inferior product and service, is “wicked”. That’s strong language! Of all people, employers and customers should be able to trust followers of Christ to be honest, work for their wages and provide the highest quality service.

And for the record, it’s not smart to steal, even if you don’t get caught. “Ill-gotten gains do not profit” (Pr 10:2 NAS). You may take it but you won’t benefit from it. “Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles” (Pr 13:11 NAS). You can’t do the wrong thing and get the right result. Not only will you have trouble, you’ll bring trouble on those who love and need you most. “He who profits illicitly troubles his own house” (Pr 15:27 NAS). The job loss, damaged reputation, humiliation, legal costs and consequences are a ‘bill’ the whole family pays for, often ending in shame and divorce and affecting several generations. Your spouse deserves an honest partner. Your children deserve a role model they can emulate, confident the path you walk is safe for them to follow.

If you want to succeed on the job here’s a character quality you need to develop: diligence. When asked, “What’s your biggest challenge?” employers usually say, “Finding and keeping good people.” It makes or breaks any business. “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich” (Pr 10:4 NRS). Diligence calls for being self-disciplined, motivated, alert, dependable, and entails following through. The Bible says, “Diligence is…precious” (Pr 12:27 NKJV) because it’s so hard to find.

Diligent workers are worth their wages: “The plans of the diligent lead to profit” (Pr 21:5 NIV). In God’s system the boss should profit by you and you should profit by him. Indeed, diligent people plan to be profitable employees. Do you want to prosper? See that your employer prospers! Diligent workers rejoice in this, lazy workers resent it. Diligence, not politics and manipulation, will get you promoted. “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labour” (Pr 12:24 NIV).

In God’s economy you determine whether you become “ruler” or “slave” by how hard you’re willing to work. Lazy employees complain about the unfair boss, the biased system, the ‘company men’ who look out for the boss and the boss who looks out for them. They want the privileges others get but they’re not willing to work for them. “The sluggard craves and gets nothing” (Pr 13:4 NIV) because “his hands refuse to work” (Pr 21:25 NIV). “But the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied” (Pr 13:4 NIV). They get it all: the satisfaction of a job well done, a reputation for integrity, the trust of others, job security, profit, promotion, and most importantly, the Master’s “Well done”.

Another Bible characteristic to acquire for job success is thoughtfulness. That’s so, whether you’re a general in the army or a “GI Joe”, the company president or the nightshift caretaker. Character is not class-conscious. You don’t demand respect, you earn it every day. If you’re in a leadership role, the Bible says: “Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds” (Pr 27:23 NAS).

Good employers and supervisors make it their business to know the needs, strengths, weaknesses, potential and motivational levels of their workers. As a result employee sick time is reduced, morale improved and quality and production soars. A pay increase isn’t always the best motivator. Sometimes your thoughtfulness, understanding and interest in your employees are a more powerful motivator. The old ‘kick them in the pants’ philosophy is a sure-fire way to generate resentment and undermining. Being respectful and caring invites cooperation, makes allies, not adversaries of employees and employers, and brings out the best in everybody.

If you’re an employee God promises, “He who looks after his master will be honoured.” It’s not cool to bad-mouth the boss, even if your peers egg you on. Ultimately those around you will distrust you because they know that at some point you’ll do the same to them. Speak well of your boss, honour him or her and submit to their authority (See Rom 13:1-7). If you can’t, say nothing and look for another job; otherwise you’ll be judged for undermining them. In the parable of the talents Jesus said that the workers who took care of their boss’s interests were rewarded richly. Yes, God will honour you for respecting even a difficult boss!

Nothing contributes more to job success than skilfulness. Skilled workers excel by study, practise and hard work. Second best is unacceptable. “If you do your job well, you will work for a ruler and never be a slave.” (Pr 22:29 CEV). Skilfulness isn’t genetic; you don’t inherit it, you work for it. You burn the midnight oil, stretch to your limits and refuse to ’settle’. Watch a skilled craftsman; your esteem rises at their attention to detail, refusal to cut corners, patience, dedication and pride of product. They inspire confidence, respect and trust. There’s no more practical demonstration of genuine Christianity than being a skilled worker. When they speak people listen. If you doubt that try sharing your faith with those who see you being dishonest, shoddy and careless. Better to be silent until you earn the right to be heard!

Whatever your work, “Do it…in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col 3:17 NIV). We should be ‘raising the bar’ because we’re Christ’s representatives. We should set the industry standard for excellence. Knowing we follow Christ should give employers and customers confidence they’ll get nothing but the best.

The skilful worker can’t lose, because God promises that their work will inevitably attract the attention of people who’ll promote them and reward them. “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings” (Pr 22:29 NIV). They may start at the bottom of the ladder, but their destination is a rung higher up.

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Source: Australian Prayer Network

Posted via web from dg4G’s posterous

The small win I’m celebrating is that I finally filled one of the positions. So just 4 more to fill. Yay.

Still, I’m blown away by the things people do to try and get noticed.  I’ve talked to some friends who are in human resources full time about good ways to benchmark people’s applications, and have also tried to help an awesomesauce friend in refining his applications by putting my experience on both sides of the recruitment fence to work.

Clever creativity is key in getting the attention of those who have the sometimes always painful job of trawling through the emails. And for me, it’s a good way of putting into action my constant prayer for more of patience.

I thought I’d seen most of the ludicrous attempts to capture my attention until yesterday, when I received an application typed entirely in a font very similar to the one below.

If you are the person who sent this to me…what on earth were you thinking????

I suppose I should be happy that it wasn’t snailmailed on parchment shouldn’t I…

I studied all about economics at university, and had great fun modelling booms and busts and having Keynesian modelling parties.  Yep…

However, this is the first recession (shh…don’t say it again…) that we’ve had in Australia since I was at university in the early 1990s.  We are one of the few nations not to have had a downturn between 1991 and now.  I’m not going to pontificate on the myriad reasons, because I’d rather dwell on the good stuff.  God, specifically.

Right now, I see plenty of evidence that people in covenant with God are bucking the trend.  It’s not going to be everyone, but a great Biblical example of something like this can be found in Genesis 26 as Isaac prospered in the midst of a devastating famine.  In fact, verse 12 tells us “…Isaac sowed seed in that land and received in the same year a hundred times as much as he had planted, and the Lord favored him with blessings.” (emphasis mine).

While Diane and I are keen to see some of this harvest in our own personal lives, the company I work for (or rather, the company I run that employs me to keep it running is seeing blessing.  And I’m not just saying that like it trips off the tongue of so many.  I’m talking covenant blessing : the owner is Christian, I’m a Christ-follower, several of my line managers are Christ-lovers, not to mention quite a considerable number of the rest of the staff too.  Our management meetings begin with prayer.

So I’ve been tweeting about how I’m trying to recruit 5 people at the moment.  I’ve done recruiting in the past, but with unemployment rates rising (only v.slightly here in Oz…so far…), it seems there are lots more people looking for work than in the past.  And they’ve all applied for my jobs.  I’ve done a great form letter email template to make the “Sorry, not this time” process easier. But 154 rejections?  Usually we only get 10-15 applications!

All of which just makes the selection process more draining.

But…I’m so happy to be able to offer some people employment rather than the alternative.

And, if you fit the following criteria, feel free to get in touch – I may have something for you.

1. You must already be allowed to work in Australia (I’ve sponsored people before, definitely not averse to that, but usually only for highly technical positions.  It’s a painful process, made more painful the less technical the role is. Now you know.), AND

2. Experience in a broadly-scoped office administration environment, including accounts receivable/payable, OR

3. Experience in the sales of professional audio visual equipment, ideally including market expansion skills, OR

4. Experience in event support – specifically the communications systems used in large events like the Olympics, etc (thousands of FM in-ears, UHF radios, ClearCom matrices, etc)

5. But most importantly of all, you must be able to sell your overall brilliance to me.

So leave a comment and tell me why I should employ you.

(and why you’re worth sponsoring if I have to get you out here to Australia

Actually, if you’re serious, it might be a better idea to email me via my Contact page.  Seriously.

Sure, these posts don’t exactly generate a lot of comments, but then again, the only ones which really seem to are my attempts at vlogging with Diane and my reflections on worship.  Neither of those are really about me.  Hmmm…

Anyway, an update on work:

1. I still work

2. It still provides us with finances

3. I’m still working with the guy from this post on his current funkiness, which is going ‘well’

4. I’m trying to be more focussed on work, even though it’s not my passion…so dealing with the guy in 3 up there is actually helping me in that.

5. I’m incredibly grateful for the amazing amount of flexibility I have in my work.  I basically run the company (that’s not big-noting, just statement of fact) and have the support of the owner to “re-organise” my hours so I can be part of this.

So while this may not be my first choice of career, the blessing of work cannot be overstated.  Thank you, work.

Your turn now: How is your family provided with income? Do you love it? Why?

Most were brief and of the “hey, howyadoin’?” variety, some a bit longer, all vital for me keeping my finger on the pulse of this company and its’ most precious resource – the people.

After nearly 10 hours, I’m a little spaced, but I’ve managed to fit in 15 meetings – that’s nearly half the permanents, and I saw a couple of the casuals too.

In retrospect, this might be a bit much in one day (especially since I’ll likely be doing the other half tomorrow), but most of my staff don’t work onsite for the vast majority of the time and I’m taking the opportunity while it’s there.

In more exciting news (probably), my “long-awaited” blog transfer to the competition is getting closer…

He doesn’t know Jesus as his Lord, but he knows of Him. So in my search for a third-party counsellor who could help out and be completely unbiased, I was amazed and thrilled at how easy it was to find people who were both business-focussed and Christian.

So I’m praying for the seeds sown to be watered and tended over these next few months as we rearrange a few areas to enable this young man, who has never worked anywhere else in his life, to “shake the disease” of disinterest, regain the professional respect of this colleagues, and shine.

Acknowledging its existence is half the battle; there’s still a long way to go until victory can be claimed. But he (we) will.

Meanwhile, some vintage Depeche Mode. I have no idea whether he knew this song would come flooding to my mind as soon as he used the title phrase – he knows I’m a Depche fan – but it did nonetheless.

There was never any intention to leave it so long between posts. I guess 4 days isn’t really that long, and it helps make up for the times I posted more than once per day earlier in the month, but still…

What’s been “preventing” me has been has been the project that I blogged about back here. It’s very contagious for me, and very boring for my long-suffering wife. But I never intended for it to stop me spending a few minutes sharing my space shaping adventures.

Today is day 2 of my new job without the predecessor being here. I’ve spent a considerable portion of those two days moving offices – always fun – and am now surrounded my piles of paper. I don’t usually work that way – I’m generally very “filed” – so I’m a bit on edge about it.

There’s been a couple of opportunities to be an influencer in the way things are done, but I’m mainly taking a ‘get-along-side-and-find-out-what-makes-you-tick’ approach so that when the real changes are made (and there are going to be changes, there needs to be) it comes from someone who has established relationship.

And someone prepared to say “no”. That bit will be really hard. I’ve been reading a lot lately about leadership v management, and being able to say “no” is one of the differentiation points apparently. As long as I do this by adding God’s addendum of “in love”, that wisdom I and others have been praying for will be evidentiary and not just theory.

Evidentiary – I don’t think I’ve ever had the opportunity to use that word before. I like Much better than fiduciary. If more people in fiduciary roles sought to ensure there was adequate evidentiary material, the world economy may not have imploded. Oh wait, that was greed wasn’t it…

My fortnight of letting the former General Manager (old COO) download his head into mine ends today, and next week the Managing Director (CEO) and I (new COO) get into implementing some change to make the management function better suit our respective skillsets (I’m even sounding like a manager).

So I’m about to get to work shaping my (work)space. Your prayers for wisdom are greatly appreciated. The opportunity to be a living example of the Gospel in the way I manage and influence staff, customers, suppliers, and other interested parties is both invigorating and scary.

And one day, I’ll learn Photoshop or something like it and make pics as cool as the ones you find on this blog