kvanover@twc.com

Christian Workforce

Very rarely do I give advice. Generally, I just write the blog and let the reader form his/her own opinion. Today, however, I’m going to buck the trend and just give advice. I’m going to give advice on how to be a good Christian at work.

Let’s face it, most of us spend about 1/3 of our lives at work. Most of the time, I’m a good Christian at church, I’m a so-so Christian at home, and I’m bad Christian at work. There are actually times when I need to remind myself that I’m a Christian at work. I work in law enforcement, so it’s easy to get absorbed into the daily discontent and disgruntlement that accompanies my profession. However, I’ve heard that the same issues apply to several jobs, whether it’s law enforcement, teaching, factory work, or whatever.

During my working career, I have been blessed to be the grunt at times, been blessed to be the boss at times, and been blessed to be everywhere in between. Some of this advice will apply to the grunts and some of it will apply to the bosses. Nonetheless, whether we are the boss or the grunt, the following advice will make us good representatives of Christ in the workplace.

1) Make the boss look good…..even if we have a boss that never says thank you. At least, Jesus knows what we did. Furthermore, when we make the boss look good, we’re not being glory hounds. There’s a reason that people say, “To God be the glory”. Mankind simply cannot handle glory. It’s our job to serve; let God have the glory. If we’re humble, God will make our hard work known to others in his perfect timing.

2) Don’t play the victim at work. For example, a promotion got handed out, and we were picked over. Maybe we deserved it; maybe we didn’t. But really, who are we to judge some other person’s blessing? If someone else gets a promotion, congratulate them immediately, especially if that person was our chief competition for the position. Be helpful to the person who was promoted. Don’t do the job for them, but help them if possible. We’ll make a friend for life.

3) Keep our disgruntled attitudes to ourselves. The best thing is to not get disgruntled in the first place. However, if we’re already disgruntled, we should keep our attitudes to ourselves because I can guarantee that no one wants to work with us, when we’re disgruntled. Working with a disgruntled person is like being his/her emotional punching bag.

4) Give everyone credit. Bosses need to have enough foresight to know that their subordinates are the only reason that the job gets done. Furthermore, as a boss, sometimes we have to take sides with our employees, even when we wish they had used better judgement. If we do, we will make them very loyal employees… and loyalty is hard to come by. Bosses also need to say please and thank you. Subordinates know who gives out the orders, but it sure makes the orders go down easier when the orders are preceded with please and proceeded with thank you.  During my career, I’ve been extra-blessed to have bosses who knew how to say please and thank you.

5) Acknowledge when we’re the “Golden Child” and acknowledge when we’re from “the land of misfit toys”. I have had the blessing, and I do mean “blessing”, of being both the golden child and the misfit. Honestly, there’s very little difference between the two. The golden child will draw to ire of his/her co-workers, and the misfit will draw the ire of his/her bosses. Knowing where we fit in will allow us to present our ideas and opinions in a way that is least offensive to either party.

6) If the chief competition is a close friend, think twice about applying for the promotion. I have been the close friend who got the promotion, and I have been the close friend who didn’t get the promotion. Each time it changed my friendship with that person for the worse. I mean….we’re adults. We should be able to handle it, right? Wrong. It will definitely change our friendships.

7) Don’t expect everyone to like us. This goes for bosses and subordinates. Many times we spend way too much time trying to convince someone to like us, when they never will. As a result, we waste precious time that we could have used to build relationships with people who were willing to give us a chance. Obviously, we shouldn’t treat difficult people like outcasts, but we shouldn’t go completely out of our way to help them either. Invest time in “willing” people.

8) Don’t gossip….even if it’s true. I know this from experience. Enough said.

9) Wear our blessings well. This piece of advice comes directly from Joel Osteen. When we know that God gave us that promotion, wear it well. Don’t flaunt it, but wear it well. If other people are jealous, then they will have to work that out with God. If we feel bad that we received a blessing, such as a promotion, then we are disrespecting God, the one who gave it to us.

10) Don’t expect work to be perfect. We are sinners with sinners for co-workers, and we are all being supervised by sinners. Forgive, forget, and move on.