Overcoming Employee Discontent
Our Mission
To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.
Jeremiah 4.4 records, O people of Judah and Jerusalem, surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the LORD, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins. America is increasingly becoming more chaotic. Things are obviously out of control. Many people look for God to fix them. Our thinking is that since He is all-powerful and loving He should want to end the trouble and has the power to do so. Yet it is not God causing the trouble. It is man against man that is creating our chaos.
It is people disregarding God and His commands who do what they want and what they want to do is steal, kill and destroy. God is looking for a sign from us that we are weary of living disobediently from Him and His ways. God is waiting for us to change and to solve our problem by loving instead of hating. God works through humanity not around humanity, at least for the most part. Angels are not coming from heaven to stop us from killing each other. We have to choose to love instead of hate, to forgive instead of take revenge. We are merely suffering from the consequences of our actions which reflect our thinking. We hate so we kill. We become angry so we take revenge. We want so we steal.
The Christian response to injustice is to suffer with love. Certainly we should cry out for justice but not demand it with more injustice. Martin Luther King Jr. did not organize political rallies that destroyed people and property. Dr. King suffered humiliation and injury, injustice, while demanding his followers love, suffer and forgive.
Dr. King took his orders from Jesus, Who as God, suffered injustice at the hands of men without crying out or taking revenge or demanding a defense. Injustice is defeated by righteousness. Gandhi practiced the same methodology. Injustice is beaten by love, suffering and forgiveness. Certainly God will judge all people for their deeds when they pass from this life without His rule into the next life where He rules unequivocally. His judgement will not be a free pass to those who suffered but took revenge to bring about justice.
God will reward those who turned the other cheek when they were struck on the first one. God forgives those who forgave their enemies and did good to those who hated them. Only Christianity has such a message. Muslims demand revenge and take it. Buddhists escape this world and ignore it. Hindus separate humanity so blame the plight of the disenfranchised upon themselves for they have ‘earned’ their injustice.
It is only Christianity that records God stating all humanity, male and female, are created in His image and have equal value. Only Christianity records God proclaiming His adopted children have no unequal status before Him or one another based upon color, class or competence. The Church must find its voice and teach its people God’s ways then God’s people must obey. They must change their hearts and live lives of love, suffering and forgiveness if we are going to restore peace and justice to this nation. God waits for the Church to wake up and do what He has commanded.
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MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
July 11, 2016
Overcoming Employee Discontent
by Rick Boxx
Businesses are often so driven by the bottom line – maximizing profits – that they are reluctant to increase payroll costs. Such a strategy might boost profit margins over the short term, but can have a disastrous long-term impact on the people who perform the work to make the company profitable. On numerous occasions I have observed that this overemphasis on the business’s bottom line can cause considerable discontent in lower-paid workers, like we have seen repeatedly in the news as workers speak out and protest in a quest for higher wages. Numerous factors can affect a worker’s sense of contentment on the job, but feeling undercompensated is one of the greatest causes of discontentment.
One radical way of changing this would be for business executives to start viewing their employees in a more personal manner, regarding them as their “business family,” rather than as faceless drains on the company’s finances. This is especially true if we adopt a biblical perspective of the employer-employee working relationship. Rather than being an “owner” or “boss,” God calls leaders to consider their roles as that of a shepherd, responsible for the well-being of the sheep – their “flock.” For instance, 1 Peter 5:2-3 teaches, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers – not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”
Another passage, from the Old Testament, offers a similar perspective: “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds, for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations…. You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed you and your family and to nourish your servant girls” (Proverbs 27:23-27).
The point is simple: As leaders and executives, our responsibility is not only to safeguard the company’s bottom line – although for a business to survive it must make a profit. We are stewards of all of those who work for us. They have been entrusted to our care, and we have a responsibility for making certain they are treated fairly and equitably. External pressures should not be required for us to properly provide for those in our employ, and that includes being willing to compensate them generously, acknowledging their vital contributions to our corporate success.
What would be the outcome of balancing concern for the company’s bottom line with an equal awareness of the financial needs of our workers? In all likelihood, it would result in improved productivity and profitability. In other words, the bottom line could be enhanced by paying employees wages at a level they deserve. As 1 Timothy 5:18 says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain…. Those who work deserve their pay!”
If you desire a harmonious and profitable workplace, consider being a shepherd, not a dictator. Setting the tone for a positive working environment, recognizing valued contributions by workers, and compensating them generously will help in ensuring corporate success.
Copyright 2016, Integrity Resource Center, Inc. Adapted with permission from “Integrity Moments with Rick Boxx,” a commentary on issues of integrity in the workplace from a Christian perspective. His new book, Unconventional Business, provides “Five Keys to Growing a Business God’s Way.”
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