Harassed At Work (?)

I agree Ginny completely.

I was laid off a few months ago because there simply was no work coming in. In fact, that office will probably be closed by the end of the year because of the lack of business. I maintained a good witness and did my work well... and as a result the company did all it could to keep me... EVEN THO my immediate supervisor was Jewish who really had no patience for Christians. But he loved my work.

Now I am working as a temp for a rather large corporation. They hired two of us at the same time. Last week they fired the other guy. Why? Poor productivity. I'm still there, and in fact they just extended my contract... and there is talk about a permanent position.

As for being harassed in the workplace simply because of your faith, there are laws against that. There are Christian law firms that will take cases like that FOR FREE. Just be sure that you are actually being harassed for your beliefs, and not because you're an idle fool. (not calling YOU an idle fool, I meant that to everyone in general).

Krispy

Art, I've known Ginny for a while... I think you have made some assumptions about her that are not necessarily so. It's hard to relate one's whole life and work into a couple of paragraphs. I am certain she allows her employees to take the type of calls you mentioned.

I think what she was addressing was endless long phone conversations outside the range of what you described. And yes, that would be stealing if that is in fact what was going on.

But Ginny is very good at defending herself.

Krispy

In my work as a meeting coordinator I work pretty much alone and unsupervised. By God's grace, and may I never abuse it, I enjoy tremendous favor from my staffing agency and seminar companirs. So I am not harrassed. So I praise God that he has blessed me with work I enjoy.

I think Ginnyrose addresses some valid points and has given a valuable perspective as an employer. I am noticing a disturbing trend, particularly among young adults, who take an irresponsible attitude toward their jobs. What is really disheartening is when these young adults make a big deal about being Christian and may talk about the word. But then show up late and use their cell phones and not give their all to their employer. When their employer addresses these issues they are the ones who cry persecution or its the devil or harrassment. Consequently their testimony cannot be taken seriously. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 that our ambition should be to lead a quiet life, to ,mind our own business and to work with our hands. Such a life will win the respect of outsiders.

If we really want to make a gospel impact may I give a word of advice? Please do not tell the workplace you are a Christian. Let me explain. The moment you announce you are a Christian you will be out in the spotlight. In a culture that is hostile to Christ the nonbelievers will look for opportunities for you to screw up and when you do they jump. And as Ginny said your testimony is not taken seriously.

Do you really want to make an impact for Christ in your work place? May I suggest you show up for work on time. If possible get there 15 minutes early. Be at your work station ready with a smile to give your employer your Christ centered effort. Respect the company policies on cell phone uses. Do not use the computer for video games or personal email. Get your projects and quotas done in the assigned time frame. If you finish ahead of time on something offer to help someone else. Stay out of the office or factory gossip. You are there to work. Dress appropiately for the job. If in an office environment dress according to the company protocals. Br professional. Saints dress conservatively and tastfily. If in a factory environment dress cleanly. Wear protective shoes and pants. Leave the ratty t shirts, cut offs, and sandals at home. Respect the break and lunch times. I honestly believe if you quietly do these things your testimony for Christ will have far more imact in the work p/ace. And may lead to some coversations about Jesus.

Want to make your work more enjoyable? Pray over your work area in the office or factory. Pray that God will show up in the work place. Pray for Jesus to guide you in a project. Pray for God to bless your boss, your coworkers, your company. Before you go into the office or factory ask God to go before you and annoint your time at work. Bekieve me this works. When I pray over my meetings they go a lot more smoothly and the day is a lot more enjoyable.

One more thing be thankful you are blessed with a job. Some may feel their job stinks. Nothing to be thankful for. Be thankful you have a paycheck coming in. Believe me a paycheck beats being in the ranks of the unemployed.

Saints this is the walk of holiness. Showing up at work on time and keeping your checkbook balanced is just as important as listening to Leonard Ravenhill or Paul Washer. Sometime I think we forget the more practical things in our pursuit of theology.

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Blaine Scogin

Brother you are correct. There is another side I wanted to post but my entry was getting too long. Lord willing will post that other side later.

Blaine

At my new job... I did not tell people I was a Christian until some began asking. The only tell tale sign is my Bible sitting on my desk.

There is a two fold reason why I dont hide it (altho there is much wisdom in living it out FIRST, and then talk about it!). #1 is to be a witness. I am condfident in my work ethic. #2 it helps to keep me focussed on my witness and how I live it out. If people know I am a believer and I know they are watching it helps me to live it out. I dont want to do anything to bring reproach upon my Lord.

For the exact opposite reason I do not have Christian bumper stickers on my vehicles. Because I know sooner or later I'm going to embarass the Lord with my driving...

Krispy

My wife and kids know not to call me at work unless it pertains to schedules, etc. Sometimes we have to figure out who is picking up who, who has to be where... etc. But that is easily solved in about 30 seconds. No chatting while I am working. At the same time, they know they can reach me any time if needed.

Sometimes they text me because then I can respond when I get time and they dont interrupt me.

But chatting for the sake of chatting.... unacceptable at work. I dont even do that outside of work. I'm not a big phone talker.

It was a given a couple of generations ago: "You dont bother a man when he's working." I remember hearing my grandparents and my parents saying that. You never hear that anymore.

Krispy

I don't think that the thread necessarily got off track as ones behavior at work often brings perceived harrassment which they construe as persecution. Ap example. I know of a young woman who works for the United States Dept. of State. She has a pretty responsible job. She is a Christian. Has done ministry. Even taught in the persecuted church. When I first met her and we would talk she said she was being persecuted in her office because of her faith. She would not get favorable evaluations and would be written up. Her supervisors would continually discipline her. This sister would always tell me it was the devil, demons, warlocks and witches out to get her. One would think this sister were the target of the NWO.

Now let me give you the other side of the story. This sister has consistantly shown up late for her job. She has used up all of her annual and sick leave and used much leave without pay and been many days absent from her job. Her supervisors have counselled her repeatefly stressing she needed to be at her job where they depended on her

When we would talk she said it was persecution. She said no one would listen to her speak of Christ. As I started to put things together I gently suggested she might want to tighten up her job behavior. She accused me of having a religious spirit. Needless to say we do not talk to each other.

So you be the judge. Is this persecution or poor job behavior.

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Blaine Scogin

Does persecution exist at work because of one's stand for Christ. Yes. It does exist because of the darkness of the times we live in. And such persecution is on the increase. Because my work as a meeting coordinator requires me to work alone at different venues I do not experience such persecution other than the occasional snide remark I may get as I read my New Testament at the registration table. When my paper work is done my responsibility is to mind the seminar and make sure everything runs smoothly. So I have some downtime to read the word. Whereas this has opened up some good gospel discussions there have been some dirty looks and remarks.

When I lived in Denver there was a Christian public school teacher who was fired from his teaching job. The firing had nothing to do with his job performance. It was said he was an excellent teacher. He was fired for quietly reading his New Testament in the classroom during his designated breaks. Thus far the Federal courts have upheld the firing.

I have heard accounts where a Christian accounting clerk will be asked to change a report to make the company bottom line look good. This clerk knows the data is wrong and the report would be fraudulant. Also the clerk knows they would be lying, in sin, and compromise their walk with Christ. The clerk tells the manager respectfully but firmly they cannot change the report because of their witness for Christ. The clerk is fired for insubordination.

In large businesses and even the public sector diversity is the idol. Homosexuality is the accepted norm. New age practice and shaminism are promoted as new management practices. Christians who work in such places and speak out on these things are disciplined or fired. And now subject to legal prosecution. I believe it is a hate crime to speak out against homosexuals or moslens..

It is perfectly alright to mention the name of Buddha or Mohammed in the work place. Mention the name of Jesus Christ and you are disciplined, fired, and soon may be jailed. I am speaking of the United States.

I have been speaking of Christian workers in a secular work place who experience persecution. How about evangelical pastors who are run off from their churches for preaching the truth. That would be another thread.

Yes, there is persecution in the workplace because of one's stand for Christ and 8th will only get worse as the days go by. The question we need to ask ourselves is if we are willing to pay the price.

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Blaine Scogin

Did you hear about the meat packing plant in Iowa that was ordered by the Feds to give their Moslem workers time off from work to do their prayers? I think this was with pay. I need to do some googling about this case. But I heard about it several months ago

Blaine.

Trekker, the workplace for most of us is dominated by liberal politices and liberal thinking--affirmative action, fairness for women, overly sensitive, etc. Liberals (usually Godless people) will try to trip you up if they can. All a woman has to go is to go HR with a tear in her eye a little sob story, and you are automaticlly guilty--especially if the head of HR is a woman. All of this ultimately comes from our federal government that has basically taken over the workplace. Try to run your business with conservative principals and see what happens. You are fighting extreme political forces in the workplace that are often aligned against conservatives. Then there is all the OSHAA crap like hard hats, safety shoes, orange smocks, safety glasses for construction workers. These people are so bogged down in safety gear, it's a wonder they can get any work done. They have to wear this out in the extreme heat down here in Texas.

A friend of mine who works has worked at Lockheed Martin here in Ft. Worth for 25 years put up a poster in his cubicle that showed how many people were killed in WWI, WWII, etc, and then at the end it showed how many were killed via abortion. He was told to take it down or lose his job. Corporate America is dominted by liberal thought. That's untimately what you're fighting against IMHO.

I know this may be a little bit off topic, and I hope the OP can forgive me, but I thought you all my find this small businessman's take on hiring employees very interesting:

Robert F., a small-business employer for 22 years, shares the rarely-addressed point of view of the employer:

I own a security firm in a major Western-U.S. city. I have been an employer for 22 years. What a nightmare it is! Few seem to understand why businesses don't want to hire--here's my perspective.

Once I hire someone, I am party to a relationship that is full of risk. What usually happens is the "check harvesting" situation where just enough work is done to extract a paycheck. I am on the hook for matching Social Security tax, medicare tax, city occupational tax, unemployment tax, federal unemployment tax, workers comp insurance and all the abuse that goes along with that system. I have to withold State and Federal income taxes with ridiculous penalties for late payments. Often I will get served with a garnishment or child support levy for an employee, and I am on the hook for all this. If I fail to withold on a garnishment I become liable to pay the debt.

To take one real-life example of many: after all this, the employee can't get along with others, grows a beard and says it's a religious right, needs weekends off because he goes to church and it's descriminatory for me not to give him time off for his beliefs.... soon I'm looking for a way to fire him. Now the rage begins! I am subject to violence, attacks, retribution, slander-- everything all because the employee won't/can't do the job he accepted.

I have been through terminations where I was threatened with a gun, had to call the cops, etc. The usual take is that the police will take action after the homicide spree is done with. My nice Chrysler car got a cinder block thrown throught the window a few years back (oh, but there's no proof it's the guy I fired one week ago who punched his fist throught the window and had the paramedics haul off out of my office.)

Sure, I've had some great employees too--people who I only have good things to say about. I also paid them every cent I owed them and they often got more than their base pay--bonuses, extras, etc. But I could write another two pages on malicious lawsuits. For example, I promote some guy and a woman is burned up because she didn't get it and "it's discrimination." One guy is gay and other employees tease-- my job to step in and mediate and manage the mess and "This is a hatefull workplace-I'm going to be talking to a lawyer."

If I advertise for a job opening, my office fills up with the angry, over-qualified, alcoholic dead-beats and weed smokers... they all have rights of course and I owe them a job. So, Obama says employers need to hire the uenmployed? Yeah, sure! Sorry if I sound bitter-- this is my last year doing this and then I am going solo/free-lance. While I might earn less, I will have my sanity!

Many non-employers will read this and dismiss it as hyperbole or atypical; those of us who have had burdensome payrolls know it is simply realistic. The issues of high costs and multiple risks are societal and cannot be reduced to econometric quantification; the burdens and entitlements built into the labor market are not fully revealed by statistics.

As someone who has experience as an employee, as an entrepreneur who ran a small business with dozen or more employees, and as someone who has spent decades as a self-employed free-lance contractor, I understand the compelling benefits of sole proprietorship in which all labor is subcontracted to other free-lancers/sole proprietors: the taxes, healthcare, insurance and all the rest are the responsibility of each free-lancer/contractor.

This arrangement places a premium on professional conduct: in this world, each sole proprietor agrees to do X work for Y compensation paid in Z timeframe. A focus on entitlement is of no interest to people expecting professional behavior and results. An "entitlement/employee" attitude will quickly alienate those who just need X work done in Y timeframe, and unprofessional work or conduct will result in a loss of future work.

The 1980s song proclaimed "take this job and shove it:" in this era, it's small business owners who are muttering, "take this business and shove it, I'm outta here."

While the dearth of small business hiring mystifies pundits and government officials, it's no mystery to me: I hear from small business owners all the time, and the vast majority are bailing out of their business and the travails of employees, taxes and legal hassles for retirement or a free-lance/contract mode of business.

In this world, security comes not from contractual obligations imposed on employers, but on the quality and professionalism of the work and behavior. Those who mourn the passing of the old era are free to start their own businesses and hire as many people as they want.

That's actually a really cool story, Jimp. Glad you shared that. How old were you at the time, if you don't mind me asking?

What a great way to start a friendship.