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PROGRAM D-7560
I want to really encourage you to consider the quality of a role model you are on your job. It’s very important that as believers working in today’s marketplace, we model what a worker should be like by Bible standards.
Not long ago a good friend of mine changed jobs, and as she began her new job, she did what she always did: She worked hard and gave her employer a good day’s work for her pay. However, the people who worked in her department were not accustomed to that kind of a work ethic. Indeed, they had all developed some very bad work habits and were quite lazy.
As they observed my friend’s work ethic, some of them made comments on how she was going to make them look bad. But she quietly responded that she just had to do her work diligently because that was the right thing to do, and she kept on working hard every day. Soon she noticed that the other employees started doing their jobs better, and they developed much better work habits simply because my friend had role modeled what a good worker should do.
She wasn’t their manager; in fact, she was low man on the totem pole as the new employee. But she role modeled what she believed God would have her do as an employee, and that has changed the morale and the work habits of her department. That’s an example of what it means to be a godly role model.
To give you a different kind of story, several years ago I was asked to do some training for a large company in New Jersey. The manager in charge was very intent on improving his employees’ telephone skills, and he insisted that they use a friendlier telephone greeting. But when I called this particular manager, he would answer his phone in an abrupt manner using only his last name. I suggested that if he would change his telephone habits, it would have a very favorable impression on his workers and they’d be more likely to change. He laughed and said, “Oh, Mary, I’ve been answering the phone this way for 25 years; I’m not likely to change now.”
Well, I knew that my training efforts would have limited success because those workers would be more influenced by their boss’s role model than they would by my training session.
So, whether you’re a worker, a manager, a business owner, low man on the ladder, or at the top, you have the privilege and the responsibility to be a godly role model. Don’t miss your opportunities.