This ministry is directed to marketplace Christians, with the purpose of encouraging you and equipping you to integrate your faith walk with your job. I always try to offer very practical help, based on biblical principles, as you face difficult and puzzling situations in your career. And perhaps the most difficult situation you will face is job hunting!
That’s why this topic is how to keep a job. What you can do to make yourself more valuable so that you are viewed as a very productive and dedicated employee. Let’s start with the basics: How’s your attitude these days? Attitude is absolutely one of the most—if not the most—critical characteristic for any employee. And the good news is, you can have a positive, upbeat attitude any day you choose to. No one can keep you mired in complaining mode and negative talk except you.
So take a good look at yourself and honestly assess your attitude. Do you gripe and complain along with everyone else? Do you bad-mouth the boss or the company? Do you have a discouraged or depressed demeanor about you—your body language, your facial expressions? Believe me, this is important.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, your most powerful witness is a joyful, hopeful attitude. There should be a smile on your face, positive words out of your mouth, a spring in your step, and joy in your heart. Of course, it should be genuine not faked, and that comes by keeping your relationship with the Lord on the front burner. It comes by bringing your thoughts into captivity and trusting God to fill you with his joy and peace, so that you are a sincerely positive person.
The next thing that is very important in keeping your job is your work habits. You know, there is great value in being dependable and trustworthy. And that begins with being on time—even a little early—every workday. Be honest with yourself—are you very careful to be on time each day, or do you fudge a little here and there?
I know many people think they don’t have to be exactly on time because no one else is, or because they work extra at times. But believe me, being on time every day sends a message about you that employers don’t miss. If you value your job and you don’t like the idea of looking for another one, then make sure you are on time every day. Of course, the real reason you should be on time is because it’s the right thing to do.
Another way to keep your job is to be a very good guardian of your employer’s time and assets. That means you work when you’re supposed to work and you use company equipment for business purposes, not personal ones. Be careful about developing a reputation for wasting time by having long personal conversations with co-workers or spending lots of time on your phone with personal calls. Those things are noticed by your employer, and even though they may never say anything to you about it, they are aware of your propensity to waste their time.
How about procrastination—putting off the things you really don’t like to do? That’s a bad habit that will not increase your value to your employer. The way I deal with that is whatever I have to do today that I don’t want to do; I try to do it first and get it out of the way. It works for me and I recommend it.
If you really want to keep the job you have, then you should examine your work habits closely and make sure they stand out in every way. Colossians 3 says: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart . . . It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24).
Another way to make yourself valuable to your organization is to be an extra-miler, the person who does more than he or she has to do. As a manager myself, I know how I value the person who volunteers to take some work off of my desk, or comes up with a good idea and is willing to implement it, or seems glad to stay and get a job done to meet a deadline. Jesus taught us to go the extra mile, to give more than is asked of us. He didn’t teach us to become doormats and let people run over us, but there’s a big difference between that extreme and being a person with an extra-mile attitude.
In addition to going the extra mile, a valuable asset in an employee is being willing to do the dirty work, so to speak. The hum-drum, mundane stuff that no one particularly likes to do, but it has to be done. It’s great to have an employee who is flexible and understanding about those kinds of jobs.
Have you ever put yourself in your boss’s shoes and tried to understand the pressures he or she faces? Have you ever really tried to think of ways to make your boss’s job easier? Think about it—if you were the boss and you had an employee who thought about you and really tried to help you, wouldn’t that person become very valuable to you? Might be the last person you’d let go if downsizing became necessary.
I know that not every boss is kind and considerate, but we are required by Scripture to respect and honor those in authority over us, even if they aren’t particularly easy to honor. Your boss probably has a lot of influence or power in determining who stays and who goes, and if you are thoughtful of that person and truly try to help him or her, it will make a very positive impression.
Another characteristic that will make you a valuable and outstanding employee is to look for new and better ways to do what you do, and to think outside the box and come up with some new ideas that will be profitable for the organization. In other words, don’t be limited by your job description. If you see an opportunity, get creative and pursue it.
It’s really important that you continue to educate yourself. How well do you know the computer programs and software that your company uses? Or maybe it’s your knowledge of accounting procedures or financial systems that is lacking. Perhaps this is the time to take a night-class or two and educate yourself in the areas where you could use more expertise; things that would help you do your job better, or prepare you to do other things.
Technology changes so quickly that you can be left behind technically in less than a year, if you don’t continue to educate yourself. For those of us who weren’t raised in the computer age, this is more of a challenge. But there’s no reason you can’t become more knowledgeable in these areas, and I don’t have to tell you that technical knowledge is here to stay and you will definitely be more valuable to your organization by knowing it better.
Are you good at managing your time? If you are, that means you are productive, you follow up and you don’t allow things to fall through the cracks. It means you prioritize your work and know what should be on the front burner and what can wait. A good time manager has a plan for each day and works that plan, and believe me that is a highly valued skill to any employer.
If you find it a challenge to manage your time effectively, I have some materials we’ve prepared for you which will give you some very practical ideas that you can put into place immediately, and I promise that it will make a difference. You’ll find that kit on our website at christianworkingwoman.org, or call us and we’ll mail it to you.
Good time management begins with a daily plan where you record everything you have to do—and of course, there are many simple programs to help you do that, on your smart phone or computer—then put time frames on it, determine priorities, and check it off as it gets done. Frankly, I would be useless without my daily to-do list. It gives clarity to my work for each day, I know what needs to get done first, and I feel good when I can check them off my list.
A valuable employee is one who recognizes the value of time and works quickly. I was observing some workers recently as I was in a waiting room, and I couldn’t believe how slowly they moved, how leisurely they passed information to a co-worker, how unprofessional they were about just doing the job with some sense of time and urgency. Obviously you can work too fast and not do a good job, but time truly is money, and if you have a reputation for making good use of your time, believe me, it will not go unnoticed!
You may not be the smartest employee, or have the most experience, or be the most educated, but you can still make yourself a very valuable employee by doing the basic things I’ve covered here.
In this time when jobs are not too easy to find, it just makes sense to be continually thinking of what you can do to make yourself more valuable to your boss and your organization. Don’t take that job for granted. I’m sure you know many people, as I do, who have been laid off from jobs after long years of service and with a good record. No job is totally secure. So, as you go to work each day, remind yourself that you want to do everything you can to keep the job you have.
I believe as believers working in secular positions in today’s world, we have an outstanding opportunity to show that because of Jesus and the confidence we have in him, we can face the future without fear, and we can accept the present day circumstances with hope and joy.
If you are interested in downloading a copy of How To Keep Your Job Kit, click here.