day 171: Rehires

Someone leaves the company for another opportunity and the HR person has to ask, “What is this person’s rehire eligibility?” What that means is if that person ever reapplies or surfaces again for the company, will they be considered as a good rehire or do we stay away from them all together? Many times these are emotional decisions. Someone has left the company at an inconvenient time or walked across the street to work for a competitor and we of course will code them as not eligible for rehire. We are upset with them. Maybe we are even angry. We can feel let down or betrayed. So, at that moment the answer is, “no way, no how are they coming back to work here”. There is a parallel story in the Bible about this. It is the parable of the prodigal son. We know the story of the son, who demands to leave the service of his Father, takes his inheritance with him, squanders it all and then comes home. What happens when he comes home is the heart of the story. The father, who experience loss and was in many ways betrayed, drops what he is doing to run to his son and take him back into his family and his family business. We read this in Luke: "So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him." How do we apply this to our work and those within our companies? I take from this parable that we are to be forgiving and we need to understand that we all are at different stages and do different things at different points of our lives. What happens today does not mean that this is how this person will be the rest of their lives. I will be honest and say that in my work career there have been people who have “burned me” and it was hard and slow for me to forgive and forget. Years later I look back on some of those situations and I wonder what I missed by not being more open to them when they “returned home” to apologize, ask for advice, or seek a position back within the company. I was calloused and did not listen. I was not living the example of the father or our Father. Today you may be faced with the situation where you ave to decide to accept someone back after their failure or their detour away from you. Can we find the heart of the father of the prodigal son and find it within ourselves to give someone another chance?

Luke 15:20 (New Living Testament)