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PROGRAM D-7007
Did you know studies show that almost half of the people in the workplace report that they really don’t like their jobs? Wow, that’s rather discouraging. I can just visualize those thousands and thousands of people headed out to their jobs each day dreading it. Reminds me of that commercial about the man whose job was to bake donuts every day. You remember the one – “Time to make the donuts.” You could just see it in his face and hear it in his voice—he hated to make those donuts.
Can people see in your face and hear in your voice that you hate your job? Believe me, it shows. It shows in your facial expressions, in your body language, in the sick days you take when you’re really not sick, in your long lunch hour. It shows in many ways.
As Christians, you and I must remember that our attitudes on the job send a very strong message about the reality of our faith. And hating your job is no excuse for not doing it well. You and I can think of lots of excuses to justify our poor attitudes—a difficult boss, an unfair working environment, impossible workloads, whatever! But the fact is, as long as you voluntarily go to that job each day and pick up your check each payday, you are morally obligated to give your employer an honest day’s work.
Once I worked for a very difficult man. And it didn’t take me long to develop such a rotten attitude toward this man that I felt justified in doing a half-way job in my work assignments. He was not a manager who motivated me to want to do a good job, so I didn’t. It took about a year, but God finally got my attention and showed me that he wanted me to change, whether my boss ever changed or not.
I had to change my attitude toward my boss, and I did that by asking God to help me see this man the way God saw him. That caused a dramatic change in my feelings toward him. Then I had to change my attitude about the work content, which I didn’t find terribly challenging or exciting. Never mind—I was obligated to do that work with excellence because of my testimony for Jesus Christ and because my ultimate upper-level manager is Jesus. He will hold me accountable for the quality of my work.
If you’ve been hating your job lately, remember that God can help you with an attitude adjustment. You may not be able to change the things you don’t like about your job, but you can, by God’s grace, change your attitude. Your attitude is your choice.