day 186: Employee Satisfaction

Many companies will once a year or so put out an employee satisfaction survey to evaluate the culture and see how the employees are feeling about working at the company. Larger corporations will go to far extremes to gain recognition on lists that detail the best places to work. These are good things to do to highlight the strengths and weaknesses in the culture so that if a company is committed, they then know what to focus on to improve. Yet, all of this does not guarantee that people will be any happier in their jobs or feel any more fulfilled in their work. More books than any of us would ever want to read have been written on the subject and still on any given day, any one of us go goes to work not satisfied and wishing we were doing something else other than being in the job we have. It is sad when this is a day-in and day-out attitude for anyone. I believe a lot of what makes this happen is that the person who is unhappy in their job and work (or with work overall) is like this because they don't have a good internal understanding of what they want from life, and their work as a subset of life. They may be chasing one dream and feeling like they are going nowhere in what they do day-in and day-out. Much of what Purposed worKING is all about is trying to help us all align ourselves with a higher purpose and understand that the work we do can fit within that purpose and be a means...not the end. We are told in Matthew from Jesus Himself that none of us can be happy when we have our priorities wrong. In Matthew 6:24 He says, "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other." This is where many of us go wrong. We elevate our jobs, and also the financial rewards that come from that job, to become the focus and the ends, versus the means. Then we look at our lives in totality and we become frustrated and angry that we have to spend so much of our time with our work and before long we begin to just hate what we do. There is not an easy solution to this so I don't want to be trite, but God is giving us the antidote when He tells us that we just need to get our masters lined up in correct order. Today you may be wishing you were anywhere but at work. You may feel like your job is a daily weight around your neck and that you are trapped. Try today turning the tables on those feelings and looking at your job as a place and an opportunity to do the best you can to be an example to others of bringing glory to God in all you do. Take the time to build a new relationship or get below the surface of an existing relationship with someone in the office and then see if the reason you are working where you work might be to be there for someone else in their time of need. Every day is a new day when you think about the real and long-lasting opportunities within your job. Be positive and excited about what those might be and realize that when your focus is there, you are getting back to serving the one true Master.

Reference: Matthew 6:24 (New Living Testament)