day 281: Wage Authority (redux)

While I am completing my vacation time this week, I will be running some repeats of post from the last year that seem to have resonated with many of you. Thanks and look for new posts beginning on Monday November 16

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
day 197: Wage Authority
Early in my career I was asked to compile and present annual "wage authorities" for the manufacturing plants where I worked. These entailed an analysis of the pay scales of all the employees in comparison to the competitive pay in the area factored by cost of living index adjustments. After all of the analysis, I would then present the findings and recommendations to a headquarters group and they in turn would provide me with the "authority" to deliver or negotiate a set annual wage increase for the employees. Later in my career I was asked once to defend the opposition to an increase in the federal minimum wage law. Even later, I lobbied against the state of California in their efforts to lower the exemptions to the wage and hour law that would keep employees in the technology fields exempt from overtime requirements. At each of these junctures I didn't feel bad (at the time) about what it was that I was doing as business requirements necessitated that a certain labor wage was maintained to make the numbers work. That is the way business works after all; like every other investment, whatever the amount of money invested or spent needs to generate a return that is greater than the cash outflow, otherwise there is no profit to be gained. The same expectation is true with people. If a dollar is spent in labor then the expectation is that a greater amount of labor value is returned. These decisions are made every day in every office, every where. You may be making them right now too as you look at a promotion, or a merit increase, or an evaluation from added responsibilities, or a new hire starting salary, or even a reduction in pay proposal to keep from a layoff occurring. What does any of this have to do with our Purposed worKING? In my study of the book of James I was struck by his verses that can help us think through our responsibility and the boundaries we should guard in these situations. James sends a "warning to the rich" that seems extreme in today's terms but the underlying message is there for all who make or recommend wage decisions. He says in Chapter 5, verses 4-5: "For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty." The verses go on to say that we can become condemners and killers of people who have no power to defend themselves. At the time, I am sure that James may have meant it literally, but we can see today how figuratively we can also condemn and kill the work ethics and spirit of others just as easily. What I hear in these verses is that God does not expect us to not be good at our jobs of leading businesses and making smart and good business choices, but that He does expect us to be fair and much more sensitized to the wages of the "field workers". I take this to mean that part of our responsibility is to to know where the line of fairness is when it comes to the pay of others and to take the stand when we feel the the line is being crossed by the business. As I reflect on my past experiences, I'm not sure I always used James' litmus test in finding that line and staying on the right side of it. My prayer today is for those of you who are decision makers for the pay of others that you add a new dimension to the wage authorities that you prepare in that you add your own prayer for discernment and wisdom as you conduct the analysis and make your determination of what is fair. At stake are the spirits, attitudes, loyalty and trust of those who work with you and the judgment of God. So, ask first the higher authority to help you find the line and stay on the right side of it

Reference: James 5:4-5 (New Living Testament)

day 280: Godly At Work (redux)

While I am completing my vacation time this week, I will be running some repeats of post from the last year that seem to have resonated with many of you. Thanks and look for new posts beginning on Monday November 16

Thursday, December 4, 2008
day 45: Godly At Work?
I hear it all the time, “it’s so hard to be ‘Godly” at work”. When I hear it from others, I reflect upon my own work life and cringe at the memories of how I handled myself on many occasions and the poor example that I many times set. I also lament that my example might have hurt the cause of someone else who was trying harder than me to be more Godly and then they would see me and feel let down. When we are so emotionally and physically intertwined with other people for the hours we are when we are working we can easily slip into the ways and the words of others. I always marveled when someone senior would come into the company and before long, the words that person used became the words of their subordinates and before long their peers. I once worked with a person whose favorite phrase was, “I don’t disagree” and before long everyone said the same thing. There was nothing outwardly wrong about that phrase (other than it sneaked in a passive aggressiveness into the culture and before long no one ever disagreed outright) but it was a great example of how we become chameleons at work and can find ourselves sharing the words and behaviors that wouldn’t normally be ours. I also know that those words and behaviors from work then creep into home. So, what are we to do? What if we try and try but still can’t seem to keep ourselves above the temptations and the fray? What we have to do is quit trying to go it alone and instead ask God to do His work on us as we go to work. If we allow ourselves to receive the power that God has covered us with then we can find enough of that power to keep ourselves Godly when we are working. In 2 Peter 1:3, we are told just this: "By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life...". Today, think through how you can let God give you that power so that today, day by day, you can find yourself living a Godly life…at work!

Reference: 2 Peter 1:3 (New Living Testament)

day 279: The Upside Down Pyramid (redux)

While I am completing my vacation time this week, I will be running some repeats of post from the last year that seem to have resonated with many of you. Thanks and look for new posts beginning on Monday November 16

Tuesday, July 7, 2009
day 192: The Upside Down Pyramid
Back in the early 1990's there was a lot of talk about how companies that really understood their employees would be thinking differently about the organization charts of their companies What they would do is invert the traditional organizational pyramid with the CEO upside down so that the front-line employee would be at the top of the pyramid, not the bottom. It was a visual way of trying to show that they wanted the front-line employee to feel like they were all there for them. Companies started renaming their headquarters into "service centers" or "support centers" with the idea that the senior executives and the people in headquarters were there to serve and support everyone else. Those ideas hung around for awhile but now we hear less about them. The principle was right though. If you are manager, you are there to support and serve the needs of those who work for you, not the other way around. Those who think that they are the boss to have others serve them find out sooner or later that they aren't very good bosses. Servant leadership is about knowing who is really doing the work and being there for them. There is no better example that the leader who served others first than our Lord. We read in Mark; "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many." The thought for today as you go to work is how are you serving others? Are you looking at the needs of the people on your team and in your organization and trying to figure out how you can best provide service to them? Or, are you waiting for others to serve you? I think we all know the right answer. See if you can't turn the pyramid upside down today and take a different vantage point and become the leader or team member who serves others. You may find that it is a much better view from that vantage point.

Reference: Mark 10:45 (New Living Testament)

day 278: Girl Scout Cookies

While I am on vacation, I have asked friends, and encouragers of Purposed worKING to contribute. Today's post comes from Jason Johnson, an entrepreneur, technology executive and Chairman of Tedx San Francisco

Typically we spend more of our waking hours with our coworkers than we do with our family or close friends. Then, suddenly, either a coworker leaves the company or we leave the company, and our interaction with our coworkers is reduced to an occasional phone call, email, or maybe a cup of coffee. The opportunity to spend frequent hours with our coworkers is lost, and so is the opportunity to 'give' of ourselves. In years past, a coworker might approach me and ask me to buy Girl Scout cookies or donate to a cause they are raising money for. At such times, I might find myself saying "sorry, I'm training for a triathlon, no cookies for me" or "sorry, I've already agreed to sponsor Kevin in accounting". Then a few years back, I heard a sermon on the radio from Jack Hayford in which he stated that when someone asks him for something - in his desire to follow the teachings of Jesus, Hayford seeks to give at every opportunity. When reflecting back to my former places of employment, I can't help but think of lost opportunities 'to give freely' to my coworkers and show them that I celebrate (and demonstrate) my recognition of the blessings bestowed upon me through the action of giving freely. Hopefully by way of the new social media tools, we may all have the opportunity to connect with some of our former coworkers, and be given the chance once more, to 'give freely' to those who need to know where all blessings come from.

Reference: Matthew 10:8 (New Living Testament) "Give as freely as you have received!"

day 277: Proper Stewardship: Work as a Noble Cause

While I am on vacation, I have asked friends, and encouragers of Purposed worKING to contribute. Today's post comes from Steve Bloom who along with the work he does, lives in Florida where he watches his daughter jump horses and his son play football...and he dreams of many things.

If you are like most workers, your job is more of a means to an end than the end itself. You probably enjoy some of what you do at work, but not all of it – maybe not even most of it. Depending on your age, you may have dreams of finding that perfect blend of vocation and avocation -- the job that provides money and meaning – the workers’ grail itself. Others may have left these dreams behind years ago, opting instead to pursue meaning in their lives outside of the workplace. The conundrum here is that we spend so much time and effort at work that it often leaves little energy for pursuing anything else --whether it is meaning, rest or just fun.
And as a believer, you are equally frustrated by your inability to witness in the workplace. Few places are more politically-correct than modern corporations, and it generally isn’t acceptable to talk religion on the job. So we stuff our beliefs down inside our business shoes watching for some small, inoffensive way to let others know we follow the Lord. And although it is important to role-model Christian living without being outwardly ‘Christian,’ doing so sometimes just isn’t enough.
On weekdays, we therefore deal with this double-bogey of not having a job that provides deep meaning and of being overly careful not to offend co-workers by sharing our beliefs. We save our sacred time for weekends or evenings, but these precious hours spent in worship or service are dwarfed by time spent at work. For some, it may be easier to stop pursuing Christ at all rather than continue to fight this seeming losing battle.
But God’s creation needs the stewardship of good business people. In Genesis 1:26, God creates man and gives him the earth to rule over, and in Genesis 2:19 God allows man to start creating order in the world by naming the animals. God in essence gives mankind the earth to manage, to plan & care for, to run like a sacred family business. Therefore good managers and business people are necessary stewards of God’s creations.
In a recent sermon, Rob Bell suggested that all workers who engage in producing a good or service in exchange for a reasonable return are practicing the kind of stewardship described in Genesis. Bell reminds us that God intends us to do something positive with His creation – to explore, to organize, to multiply, to bring order. Bell tells business people their “task is sacred, holy and profound” and implores us to do our work “in a Genesis way.” We should therefore view our work not as a means to and end, but as a noble function in God’s world – a mission field where we grow the Father’s harvest.