Single Working Women

Here are some hints I’ve picked up over the years that may help you if you are a single woman in the professional work place.

Education:

At some places of employment, advanced education isn’t that important to either men or women. They traditionally provide the training needed for their particular needs. Advancement through the ranks is typical and encouraged. Hard work and dedication are as important as formal education. If you are in this type of work situation and want to advance in management, I encourage you to take additional schooling in people handling. Often this kind of company will not reimburse for this kind of training so I encourage you to do it on your own. If it is a company that stereotypes advanced education as worthless, simply do it for your own good and without a fanfare at work. These are not bad places to work for woman but they can be very tough and you will be expected to be tough. Having good people handling skills will be a major plus.

Having some advanced education may be the only way you can get an interview at some places of employment. After you have been hired, your degree will typically not matter as much as your ability to do the job. This is especially true in supervision. The prerequisite of advanced education is being used more and more for supervisory positions as the number of applicants outweighs the number of job openings.

Often you must have a degree to perform supervision in trade careers. Trade careers examples are medical, engineering, chemistry, musical and others. Supervisors in trade careers often have a well-rounded trade education but little supervisory or personnel handling training. Having the later in addition to your trade degree will help insure your ability to advance through that business field.

We have all heard success stories of people who have worked their way up from the mail room to head of the company. While it makes a really great book, it seldom happens today simply because advanced education is so much more readily available to high school graduates. It can still happen but the road will be more difficult for you than if you had the benefit of advanced education straight out of high school. I started my career as a secretary and advanced over the next twenty years to Senior Director working for a large corporation’s CEO. While I consider it a rags to riches success story, I am here to tell you being hired with advanced education made the career path much easier for women. Even though I ended my career quite well and much of what I learned can be attributed to the trip, it was a very hard difficult road. Would I have been as successful had I not had to figure out how to overcome my initial educational obstacles? Who knows? And, for you it depends on your goals, your stamina, you ability to be tough and your intelligence.

Notice I haven’t mentioned intelligence until now. Intelligence is more than a degree. A degree may simply mean you graduated at the bottom of your class, because you cheated your way through, and daddy paid the bills. Granted that’s a worse case but I knew a few when I worked. Intelligence is being well rounded in your skills. The ability to supervise in the workplace involves an enormous amount of compassion and love for your fellow human beings. Is that intelligence? It takes intelligence to define what is needed, for what person, at the time, for the company’s benefit and to glorify God. It takes intelligence to define what God expects from you in the workplace and it takes knowing His word to put it into action. It takes intelligence to understand when you are at the wrong job, at the wrong company or are not doing God’s will. It takes intelligence to think into the future and orchestrate the path of a project, a goal, a mission, a career and your work life.

One last thing for the single working woman. If you meet a man that you may be considering for marriage, you must do these FIRST. Discuss and resolve the career issues BEFORE the marriage plans get too far down the road. All men have their own personal ethnic, family, egocentric, age, regional, and religious beliefs regarding working women and working mothers. All men have specific reactions to women who may have higher paying jobs, better positions, or advancement opportunities. You must understand love will not make these inner personal preferences go away. When you have just been advanced to partner of the firm, have a three month old baby, and a husband who refuses to help you in any way because he feels inferior to your career, it is too late to easily make a successful working plan. If a potential husband feels God demands women do not work after marriage, you darn well better get agreement on what you both will do once you are actually married. If your biological clock is ticking for children and your husband expects you to continually bring in more money through career advancement, you may find you’re unable or unwilling to do both.

This is where the Biblical term, equally yoked can apply. Choosing a Christian partner when you are a Christian working woman will help you both reach the best solutions for your faith and for God’s plan in your life. Interpreting scripture in the same way will make life much easier when you come to life’s decisions. Talking with a Christian marriage counselor prior to making the marriage commitment will allow you to realize if you are meant to spend this life together as husband and wife. Waiting until there is huge economic and career differences after marriage will mean you are seeing a marriage counselor for much different reasons.

II Corinthians 6: 14 "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?"

Married Working Women

OK, I know all women are working women! For the sake of today, I’ll be talking about women who work at jobs plus have the outside responsibility of a wife. It used to be described as "women who work outside the home" but with easy access to home computers that no longer applies. There is no one answer for you women carrying double, sometimes triple loads.

All reference in today’s message will be about women who work at jobs in addition to being a wife. I will make an assumption, if you are a woman reading a supervisory/leadership BLOG, you probably fit in this category. I’m not going to debate the pros and cons of working women. Since you work, you have already settled that issue for this period in your life. I’ll just give you some observations based on my years of working (some while single, some married, some married with children, some single with children, and some married after children left the nest.)

There is a definite line between how much husbands help their wives and that line is based on a man’s age, social upbringing, family traditions, religious and ethnic influence and the individual person. When I was working, most men of my generation did not help their working wives in any way. Some women still experience that thrill. I’ve noticed women of my children’s generation usually have a team approach to home and children duties. I was fortunate. I had the physical strength and the high metabolism to keep it all going.

A team approach between a woman and her husband should be a joint commitment from the very beginning. For a husband to expect a woman to bring home money from working and yet he does not contribute to the household duties is wrong. It is doubly wrong when you become parents.

A married couple needs to discuss the importance of each person’s financial contribution to the union. You must also discuss who must have a career to feel fulfilled. How do you feel about children and working? I know some men choose to stay home with the children but I personally never knew one in my place of business. Let’s just say that it isn’t typical. Does your husband have family or ethnic crosses to carry if you work? Does the man have ego issues if you earn more money, has a higher classified position or more schooling? Love does not overcome these issues. Only a loving discussion that reaches a mutually agreed solution can save years of after-the-fact anguish.

It will kill a woman trying to be everything to everyone at work and at home. Someone will get short changed. And, the woman’s physical and emotional health will suffer. If you are on a fast track to upper management, must work very long hours/days, or need additional schooling that takes all your evenings, I think it’s safe to say your marriage relationship will suffer.

As a working couple, you may be thinking of having children. You may feel your biological clock has about ticked for the last time. I always tremble when I hear a very successful upwardly mobile woman feel the exact time to have a child is when she is reaching for the top of her career. It’s something like thinking, "I love mountain climbing, I think I’ll climb Mt. Everest and at the same time I’ll balance a ten-ton block of cement on my head for kicks." Balancing a brick on your head when you are walking over low hills might be a better start.

If you’re worth your salt, as a working woman, you will support other women at work. When I was advancing my career, I rejoiced to see a few women moving into upper management. I rejoiced until I found they treated other woman worse than men. They didn’t help the woman coming up and actually did things to hurt other women’s careers. It was a sad example and eventually they were no longer around. Much like selfish ego driven men, their usefulness to the company expired.

I encourage all working women to support each other regardless of their race, religion, social or marital status. If you are more experienced, mentor the young new women at your work. If you are not working in a culture that promotes women friendships, start that culture today.

When you make the decision to have a career, that career becomes the most important thing after God. When you decide to marry, the priority list must change to be God, husband, and job. If you decide to have children, the priorities juggle again to God, husband, children and job. If you have those priorities in any other order, you will be responsible for relationships in your core family unit that cannot have the full benefit of your love and support. The business world often makes it almost impossible for a woman to keep that balance of priorities. Ideally, you will make those choices with thorough thought and prayer before you are into the situations.

A husband and wife can be very successful supporting each other during their careers. With a balance of love for each other and a dedication to God in your lives, you have already taken a step ahead of most married working women. If your best friend is your husband, what a refuge your home will be after work.

If your husband is not the support and friend you need either at home or for your career, you will need to pray long and hard about the next step in your life. Defining his actions: Is he jealous of your career? Does he feel you are not obeying God’s commandments for a wife? Is he insecure about his own abilities? Is he more interested in your money than in your personal state of health or career? Does he feel you don’t dedicate enough time to him? Is he too busy thinking of his own career to be involved with the marriage or you? The list of possibilities could go on for ages but the bottom line is you need to discuss there is a problem and discuss how to solve the problem. I advocate Christian counseling for Christian marriages that are not working in a tandem. I advocate praying out loud together. I advocate reading the Word together for understanding and to help you gain God’s desire in your marriage. I do not advocate having children until you have worked through and resolved any conflict you now have regarding your work.

God can use your work to benefit His kingdom and your marriage. To do this you must work together for that goal. Ephesians 5:33 "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."

Pulled Off Center

While it is extremely necessary for all Christians to stand firm in their beliefs, it is also extremely necessary for Christians to understand they cannot force their beliefs on others. Doing so will move the Christian effort, and you, into the same Satan led agenda as Christ’s enemies.

"Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe the religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man; To God therefore, not to men, must an account of it be rendered." This is from "Memorial and Remonstrance" by James Madison

If you are a history buff, you will recall many Christians fled to America because OTHER religions demanded everyone worship the same way. We read about religious leaders being provoked to act in ways not in accordance with God’s desire. I Chronicles 21:1 "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." We are still seeing this in some countries and it is the basis of many wars. God offered us the "choice" of coming to Him. And we will have that choice until His Son returns to reign with His Father. It is important, therefore, we do not take that choice away from others by using force. We are instructed to use evangelism, to use examples, to use word, to use Grace, to use prayer but not to force.

Here’s the rub: As we are more and more persecuted for our beliefs, we sometimes feel like getting even. We feel like fighting back in a like manner. Someone will quote, "An eye for an eye!" and as they say literally: "All hell breaks loose." It will be a Satan-based response. Fighting for one’s religious beliefs is a very delicate fight that must be waged with prayer and with God’s direction. You must not wage a war that removes another’s freedoms because they do not believe in God. This is a good reminder for the workplace.

If you feel the need to combat the nonbeliever in the workplace, turn to scripture for your directions. God will not want you taking His work (the work of the Holy Spirit) to force others to your particular religious belief. Here are two statements that sound similar but are a Bible apart:

1. Work very hard at leading people to God, through Jesus Christ.
2. Work very hard to make people come to God, through Jesus Christ.

The first is God’s instruction; the second is Satan’s little twist. II Corinthians 11:3 "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

9-11

My husband and I saw the new movie "9-11" last night. I didn’t want to see it because I felt I had seen it all in real time, as had most Americans, and didn’t want to relive the horrors. While it did bring back the horror of those times, it was also realization that America has forgotten how real and how horrible terrorism has become in our world. Seeing the steps unfold again reminded me that the fighting over most of the world today is no different from that awful day in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania just a few short years ago. Only today it’s not in my American back yard. It’s not happening to people we may know, work with or people we personally connect to because we are "Americans." Because the terrorism has not happened in the US in such an in-your-face way since 9-11, we have become distanced from the outrage, the threat, and the reality. We have allowed the popular media and political division to turn the public’s outrage into an agenda clothed in the rags of terrorism.

I do not say one political party is superior to another because each is only made up of it’s many members, individually different in significant ways. And, although members usually belong to specific political parties because of their general idealism and doctrine, it is foolish to let the media push voters into generalizing specific members by party. As Christians, it is our duty to assess the heart and soul of each elected official’s agenda and decisions not the media’s spin (which often fulfills the media’s agenda not the citizens.) But, I digress . . .

No matter your political affiliation, you cannot (should not) let the world slide by without knowing who to elect and why. You cannot do this by only reading or listening to the major news media reports. You cannot get a whole picture of what our military is doing by simply listening to one candidate debate another or their press releases. You cannot see world situations by taking mini bites of the news with your breakfast cereal. Let me give you an example to the impact of voting for candidates with little research to see if they actually do and will represent your beliefs.

In spite of the majority vote by California citizens to not allow grade school textbooks to be changed in the manner of SB 1437, elected Assembly and Senate officials has passed such a bill. There are three others (SB 1441 and AB 606 and AB 1056) pending with worse results for the traditional family. Seventy-six percent of the voters said "No" and still the officials who were elected to represent the citizens of that state disregarded their constituency for their own personal agenda. Where were the 76% voters when these officials were originally elected? SB 1437 has been sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although he originally said he would not pass any of these bills, he now says he is rethinking (meaning someone is putting political pressure on him). Understanding that the governor has political ambition beyond this position will help you understand he may now bow to pressure that does not represent his own voters. It is a lesson for all Americans in the necessity of voting for the candidate that represents your own personal belief system. You cannot do that if you do not research how they have voted in the past, if they voted when they were in former positions, statements they have made, personal and political choices they make, and their reputation on integrity and fairness. And if you are a Christian, you should know their history making decisions that reflect your beliefs.

You, as a working American, have the opportunity to have a broader view of how your candidates perform. You can have the world view in better perspective from your exposure to more information. You have the ability and resources to know who does what they say and who is all talk. You have the power to influence who makes your decisions in local, state and national government. It will be the most important thing you do in the next election. Eventually, it can determine the way your child will be educated, it will mean if your religious freedoms are compromised, and it will determine how your country will fight terrorism. You cannot allow candidates who do not represent family values to succeed because you simply didn’t get off your duff and do your Christian duty. The California bills have the potential to spread to the rest of the states (as has been the case over the years). They are not bills designed to insure fair and equal treatment of all peoples. The bills were not designed to protect the innocent, the minority, the underprivileged. They are bills designed to impose sanctions upon religious freedoms of all our citizens. They are designed to subvert your religious and moral freedoms. Please make your vote count in each election.

Puffed Up

A young man who used to work with me on projects has developed some serious medical problems. He has been diagnosed and mistakenly diagnosed, treated and mistreated. He has found some of his doctors are reluctant to admit mistakes or to tell the patient the straight of it all. Some of that stems from fear of liability and some stems from the the "God Complex." The God Complex is not an isolated medical condition, it can be found in any business where egos become more important than truth. And, when self becomes more important than others.

Revolving your entire focus on self makes for a very shallow world. Yet, over and over in the business climate we must work with people who only think of themselves. It's not just a secular disease of the ego, it belongs to anyone who lets their own ego take control and priority over their desire to please God.

I Corinthians 3:19-21 "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore, let no man glory in men. For all things are yours."

God warns us about thinking we are so wise that we elevate ourselves above others and Him. A humble spirit in the workplace is God's desire. It is also a very practical piece of advice (well, friend, isn't God's advice always practical, too?)

Nothing turns off employees faster than a boss that is impressed with self. The ego gets so big this supervisor or manager can't see the negative effects on the workforce. I visualize the head gets so big the eyes can't see around its puffiness. I Corinthians 4:6 "And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes: that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another." Puffed up is a funny little phrase that we don't hear used much anymore. Maybe because seeing people puffed up is so common today we have become accustomed to it as a normal way to behave.

We may not realize the negative effects of ego in the workplace from our failure to see ourselves either as others see us or because the effects are so subtle. Someone once asked me if I liked my boss and my reply was, "He likes himself good enough for both of us." The workforce loses respect for a person overly proud of their own self. When you think only of yourself you cannot spend a sufficient amount of time thinking of your employees and the work that benefits the company. I Corinthians 8:1 "Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up (makes one proud), but charity edifieth (builds one up)." Do you think Paul had some of these very thoughts about the church of Corinth that he wrote of eliminating ego over and over? It's not a new character trait, but is always wrong.

Should you find you are just a little proud of yourself, you are just a little better than your employees or your peers, or highly impressed with your own accomplishments - you may need to get down on your knees and ask forgiveness. Spend a little more time thinking about your behavior toward others (your employees, your peers, you family, and others in your community). You are not the alpha and the omega of your business. You are God's child and as such: I Corinthians 13:4-8 "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth (does not push itself forward) not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

Job Worth Doing

Do you find it amazing the number of employees that think the point of their work “is to say they have completed the task?” When the actual point “is they have completed their work well.” The old saying, “A job worth doing is a job worth doing well” still holds true today. Clocking in and clocking out does not make a productive day. A time card showing a full eight-hour day does not show missions accomplished. To differentiate between putting in time and being a productive employee you, the supervisor, will need to set goals.

I’m not a big fan of rewarding attendance beyond grade school. What does it really say? Not much if that is all you can put on your resume’. I’m all for pay based on meeting specific goals in a specific time for a specific quality and quantity. But, initiating this kind of work place and supervising in this kind of workplace is hard work and for most, a huge culture change.

The hard work for supervision comes up front. It requires having employees thoroughly educated on what you expect from them in the workplace. This must have tangible and relevant goals, performance reviews, and ramifications. However your business is set up, authoritarian or team based, the goals must be realistic but challenging.

You must stay on top of how each employee is doing throughout the year and give the employees’ feedback. Setting goals cannot be the end of your responsibility. If the business changes, the goals should be reviewed and changed if necessary.

You may have employees who do not work well in this open and aggressive work place. Without the usual method of timing them, they may believe they are free to take advantage of the plan. It’s important those employees be guided into the performance review for a wake up call. If they cannot understand that this type of work environment needs employee honesty and integrity, they must suffer ramifications. An employee who cannot adapt to this type of work atmosphere, if not handled immediately, will destroy the entire program. Once other employees see exceptions being made for the weakest link, your entire team will meet the lowest bar.

If you are successful in reorganizing your workforce to perform to the best of their ability, you will find innovation and creativity soar. When an employee is rewarded for thinking, they will shrug off the chains of rules designed to manage the poorest performer. Without poor performers, you will set your workforce free.

Psalm 25:21 “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.”

Supervising Volunteers

As businesses stretch their employees to the breaking point, more are turning to volunteers to pick up the extra work. From the grade school kid selling magazines to fund computer labs to international charities that benefit a large portion of this world's mankind, volunteers make up a massive work force.

There are few rules and regulations and even fewer checks and balances set in stone for the "employment" of volunteers. Seldom is there a contract to set guidelines. But, the most difficult aspect of supervising volunteers is they can be totally unpredictable and there is little or nothing you can do about them

Most places are so happy to have a volunteer, any volunteer, they have no criteria to make certain the volunteers will work well with the goals of the organization. I once heard a board member addressing a group of new volunteers as, "It doesn't matter if you have talent, we just want warm bodies." Now that was a sales pitch few could resist.

Here are a few suggestions that may put some organization around your volunteer programs:

Mentally, think of your volunteers as an important part of the organization. Verbally, reinforce to the volunteers how important they are to your organization.

Every new volunteer should be a part of a formal indoctrination before they are formally accepted as your volunteer. The indoctrination should include: Mission statement of the organization. Goals for the organization. Goals for your volunteers. The volunteers' duties and your expectation of how they will be accomplished. A letter of commitment signed by your volunteers.

All the above sounds a little heavy handed (especially if you are talking to the 5th grade baseball team selling candy bars.) Contrary to what you may think, volunteers want to feel like the time they are donating is contributing to the big picture/the goal. They want to feel valuable and that they are making a difference. They need to feel the organization could not function nearly as well or the end result could not be reached if wasn't for their contributions. If you are a smart supervisor, you will make sure they receive all that positive reinforcement from the first day until they retire.

Some organizations, such as the Red Cross, could not be in business if it wasn't for the many volunteers. Other businesses, such as hospitals for example, would have fewer personal amenities if wasn't for their candy stripers, gift shop organization, and information front desk volunteers. From volunteer board members to selling magazine subscriptions, volunteers have become a huge American workforce. Treating them with the same respect and using the same organizational skills you use with paid employees is essential.

As with the lady who referred to the group of volunteers sitting before her as warm bodies, she was dead wrong. I looked around this room and saw men and women who were very good at many things. Many had retired from successful careers, many had chaired very successful fund raisers, many had fresh enthusiasm and a sense they needed to help others. These people walked out of this meeting never to return to an organization that referred to them as warm bodies. They knew they had more to offer didn't want to waste time it if this wasn't the place. It took years for this organization to regroup their volunteer forces from this one sentence.

Since most volunteers are not recruited for specific jobs, as in the paid business sector, they need to complete a skill and a desire survey. This will help you place them where they are most excited and where they are talented.

Always use every volunteers you accept. I have seen volunteer groups "loose" their list of names and call on the same familiar people over and over. This burns out a few people and tells the others they are not valuable.

If you are getting volunteers from a wide area where you do not know them or their motives, you may want to institute some sort of security check before accepting them or putting in certain areas. These areas may be interacting with children, dealing with vulnerable people, handling money or chairing events. As examples, you do not want a pedophile chairing your school cookie sale, a domestic abuser answering the battered woman hot line, or the convicted thief collecting donations. It is as right to reject volunteers for sound reasons as it is to reject employment to someone who should not be in your organization.

Do not let your volunteers form "clicks" or elite groups that will effectively isolate your new volunteers from the feeling of belonging. Rotate and integrate groups on a scheduled basis. Do not allow volunteers to be eliminated because your organization becomes elitist or snobbish.

Reward volunteers often and lavishly. Personal thank you notes can work wonders. Personal talks on what their work has meant to the organization and to you is a great reward. Some people appreciate their name in the newspaper, in the program, the bulletin, or a sign on the front door. Others prefer to remain unknown but they should always receive personal thanks.

Your volunteers should be thought of the same as hired employees and their pay is the organization's thanks. Make sure you pay them well.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15 "Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within they gates: At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."

This is the Day

Psalm 118:24 “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

When a person is working hard, there are days when you think to yourself, “When I retire, I’m going to just sit on my porch and enjoy the day!” Today is that kind of day. There are birds singing and everything is green and growing from our recent rains. The corn in the surrounding fields is beginning to turn and their tassels look like lines of gold embroidery on green velvet. The fall flowers have already started to bloom and we’re planning a wiener roast for Friday evening. I successfully loaded my latest garden pictures into my computer files. I canned tomatoes yesterday and the jars are ready for those winter days when only a bowl of chili will make it better. My granddaughter will be riding the bus here after school for the first time this year. The temperature is in the mid 70's and there’s a slight breeze.

GOD IS GOOD!

If you read or listen to the news each day, you can get worried, discouraged or cynical. It’s so important that you take emotional breaks from this part of life to enjoy the gifts the Lord has given each of us. Stop the fast pace and take a look around you. Find some part, large or small, that can be counted as a blessing in your circumstances. Today, mine are many.

Thank you God for the gift of a beautiful day. You have given me a canvas that is more beautiful than any painter could hope to accomplish. You have given me the sounds and smells of a pure late summer day. You have allowed me to be relaxed in the knowledge none of my children or their families have illnesses or events that pull my heart away from this joyous day. You have given me your Word, often set to music, that helps me celebrate the wondrous joy of my salvation. Blessed be the name of the Lord! A'men.

As I go about my day, I am singing a song we often sing in church. It is the song whose mere introduction on the piano prompts my granddaughter to jump up and shout, “I LOVE this song!”: “He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice ‘cause he has made me glad!”

Wishing you the time to reflect upon your Blessings and praise the Lord.

Where Is Their Head?

We used that expression (Where Is Their Head?) when someone did something so blatantly stupid you just could not fathom what led them to completely turn off their brain. That expression came to my mind while I was reading military news this morning. The headline was about recruiters being charged with sexual harassment and misconduct. I don't know if those accused are actually guilty. I don't know if the number of people accused is also typical for non military. Military or not, one case in any place, in any business and in any position is wrong. From working many years, I'll share my opinion on this subject today.

In the work place or through work place encounters:

You can never have one person with more power of authority participating in any sexual interaction with someone who has less power. Never. That would be never under any circumstances. There are no extenuating circumstances. Never!

All people who work in positions of authority over others must be given a clear, written, and public set of rules for sexual conduct in the work place. This includes relationships that may happen outside the workplace but developed because of work place contact.

All employees who work in positions of authority over others must be given a clear, written, and public set of ramifications for sexual misconduct in the work place/work place contact.

All charges of sexual misconduct must be investigated and reviewed by the direct supervisor, department head and an impartial or outside entity. In other words, a system to prevent cover ups must be in place.

All charges of sexual misconduct must be reviewed by a standing committee (department/division/etc.) which will include representatives from the personnel (human resources), legal, and victim advocacy departments.

Every allegation must be investigated with the same procedures (from a mere mention of something, through a simple question, to outright rape charges). If any, and I mean any, incident is brought to the attention of any employee, it must be reported through the formal procedure. This allows protection for the intimidated, the shy, and the uninformed.

A formal procedure must be in place to report sexual misconduct. That procedure must be clear, written and public. Every new employee (potential employee or recruit), must be given a copy. Current employees/workers must be given a copy and it must be reviewed yearly (more often if there are lapses in procedures).

Documentation (see your legal representative) must accompany all procedure training. Participants must sign their name and date and what procedures were reviewed.

Rules of conduct must include "zero tolerance" to be effective.

When an employee/worker is charged with sexual harassment, they should immediately be put on administrative leave and removed from supervision or other authority over others, until they are acquitted. This protects potential new victims, it protects the employee from new charges, and it legally helps protect the company from charges of negligence. If they are formally convicted, the ramifications should be implemented. Ramifications may include criminal charges.

All rules of conduct and ramifications for breaking those rules must be enforced every time, for everyone, in exactly the same way to be effective. Not only does it protect the company but it allows employees to plainly understand. When rules are bent and exceptions made, employees must interpret. This eventually leads to someone crossing over a line that will eventually be publicly disclosed. At that point a company cannot do damage control, save a victim, or save a career.

Should an employee be accused of sexual harassment and be acquitted, the company should help this employee emotionally acclimate back into the workforce. The company should provide support and make the employee whole. If there were lapses in judgment or holes in the procedures, training and the review of rules should be completed.

If you or your employees do not take this seriously, you and they will eventually be in court. The damage to the victim, the employee, their families will be enormous and forever. The damage to a company’s reputation will be huge. The effect upon revenue, hiring/recruiting, and in house morale can be devastating.

Realize not everyone charged is guilty of misconduct. Anyone can make charges for any number of reasons. Having clear, written, and public rules for sexual conduct and harassment in the workplace protects the innocent employee as well as convicting the guilty.

If your company does not have procedures in place, they are open to enormous risk. No matter how small the company, most employees will interact with current or potential employees or customers who have less authority or power. The power or authority may come from hiring/firing, physical size, potential for harm or a multitude of others that are specific to each business.

If your business does not have its own personnel and legal departments, I suggest you search for help from other sources: another business's prototypes, web material, library, or a hired consultant.

Leviticus 18:30 "Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God."

For the Christian, this encompasses much more than company procedures and courtroom legalities. It encompasses several of the basic taboos of our faith: adultery, homosexuality, defilement, lack of purity and obedience, intimidation, deceit, foolishness, lust, omission of duty, and sin. If you say, as a Christian, you would never commit sexual misconduct, then you are the one person to start the plan in your workplace. You understand the core need. You understand the need to prevent temptation. You understand protecting others from sin through a method of rules and education. You understand protecting innocents.

Romans 12:1-2 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Where is your head? As a Christian, you are hopefully already thinking what you can do to bring your workplace into compliance or support the existing procedures. You already have the reasons, now go do the work.

The Challenge of Supervising Women

I’ve had several friends (male and female) ask me how they can successfully supervise women. All supervise a workforce consisting primarily of women. They all seem to have one predominate issue: There are women who are constantly fighting among themselves. At some point, the fighting overflows onto the supervisor’s lap. No one is challenging the quantity or quality of work their female workforce can accomplish; the issue is behavioral.

As supervisors, you should have learned by now to keep bickering from your own job performance. It is a sign of immaturity and can pretty much kill your career. Often the women who are working for you have no desire to advance into management. They are performing jobs they enjoy or serve the purposes within their family situations. Most women perform those duties with maturity and dignity. You never have this problem with them unless they are sucked into the fray by others. There is the precious few who make life miserable for their co-workers and you by the constant upheaval they create.

For whatever reasons, these ladies have not matured beyond their childhood jealousies, competitiveness, backstabbing, gossip, and meanness. Although I don’t profess to be an expert in this department, I will list some possible solutions for you to try.

All disruptive behavior should be handled within the performance review process. Set very clear expectations for all employees regarding the ramifications for disruption of work through poor behavior. Be explicit about what constitutes poor on-the-job behavior. The basis of the expectations is all employees must behave respectfully to other employees and the public. Setting expectations for all employees will relieve you from being accused of picking on specific employees (another tactic of the immature).

Realize you cannot change a person’s behavior but you can hold all employees to a certain standard of behavior at work. The level of behavior must be stated clearly and enforced equally and consistently. It is not necessary for you to understand the psychological reasons for their behavior. It is necessary for you to do your job without being pulled into side issues. You distance yourself from the very personality issues that always come into play for the disruptive employee.

You must not EVER be drawn into the middle of conflict. You will be drawn into settling issues and stopping conflict. There is a difference. Being drawn into the middle means you are dealing with the personality issues. You are being asked to take sides. Settling issues and stopping the conflict is done by following the rules you have set for disruptive behavior. In the end, you may be forced into dealing discipline to some of your good employees. The outcome of applying the fair decision will be both the disruptive employee and the good employee will understand you have set the line in the sand and it is there for all employees. It is a fair decision based on a fair business rule.

The disruptive employee can cost your business money for the time spent by both the other employees (talking, griping, fighting, thinking of maneuvers) and yourself. Is this money well spent? No, it is not and it is up to you, as supervisor, to make sure you are managing the company’s money and time correctly.

After going through the many steps to improve the work situation surrounding an employee who worked for me, she led me to the final step of terminating her employment. She had caused the company and fellow employees so much grief over many years. Once I set up the fair and equitable plan for disruption of work, it became a matter of her improvement or her leaving. She could not believe the company would let her go for her behavior in the work place and sadly, her choice was not to change. Had she recognized her responsibility to the job, we all would have celebrated her improvement and continued employment. Amazingly, the office was a completely new work environment once she had departed. People were no longer dealing with the constant tension created by this person and her immature behavior. It was also an example to other employees that the company would stand behind their rules for the workplace.

I will admit this is not an easy situation to supervise and it can take a measure of strength on your part. Handling this and other tough employee issues is why you are being paid to supervise. You are to guide, teach, and reward your employees. You are to protect and enrich your company. Allowing one or two people to constantly erode the work environment is not doing your job for either.

Proverbs 29:1 "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."

Red Alert

As a supervisor, how can you ever be prepared for the worst? When the UK arrested suspects plotting more air terror, the US raised its terror alert to red. One of our daughters arrived to board her plane just as the airport went to red alert but before the information had been communicated to the public. She found her entire day a tangle of confusion and delays.

Bottom line: managers and supervisors are increasingly put in situations where they must react with perfect and immediate solutions.

Having supervised in a work environment that demanded immediate emergency response, I will share some basic steps that can help each supervisor be prepared for immediate action and recovery plans. Should it be a robbery, a natural disaster, a violent employee, a terrorist threat, virtually all responses can be implemented in somewhat the same manner.

It doesn’t matter how large or small your business, you need a disaster plan. I emphasize: the point of a disaster plan is not having a book you dust off once a year. It’s a plan where all the people involved have THOUGHT about what could happen, how it would happen, and the actions it would take to lessen or survive the situation. It’s a plan that is reviewed with all employees several times a year. The plan should have a yearly review just for the purpose of updating, plus, again as situations and employees change.

Some people react better in emergency situations. They go into an emotional mode that allows clear, correct and immediate decisions. Chances are if you have not been placed in an emergency, you cannot predict how you will react. Others have been trained (military, security, medical, police, fire, etc.). I suggest all management and supervisory employees need disaster training for their specific business and the possible emergencies.

Large corporations often have disaster plans. It is imperative, as the supervisor, you know and understand the plan. Only you will be in charge at the very moment a disaster strikes. Only a thorough knowledge of the plan, having trained yourself and your employees, can help you react well enough to save lives and other company assests.

If you work for a smaller organization, you may have to be the one who develops a plan. I suggest you do this even if upper management doesn’t consider it a priority. Have your employees gathered and ask them to seriously consider every emergency situations they might encounter on the job. List the situations and then ask for concise and appropriate actions to mitigate the danger. List each appropriate reaction and list each follow-up. Make a list of who does what and how. Do you need certain supplies? Where should you locate the supplies? Where do people go and who do they contact? . There are good books in the library and web sites that can help walk you through establishing an emergency plan. Your local police, ESDA office, EMTs, fire department, health department, electric and gas utility, weather station, airport, military headquarters, and more all have people who have been trained for emergency situations. Most have people who routinely give talks or are willing to collaborate on your effort. There are businesses you can hire, on a consulting basis, to help you develop your plan. Ask other businesses if they have a plan and if they are willing to let you study as a prototype. The point is you must have this plan in place before an emergency strikes. You and your employees must be so familiar with the plan they will react immediately with calm and intelligent behavior.

Realize you can never be 100% prepared for every situation. As much as our business was prepared for emergency disasters, every disaster came with it’s own particular new scenario. But, a well-trained employee will react well even in new or surprising situations. They can adapt and make the best of any situation. That does not mean the media will portray you as perfect but then again the point of your emergency plan is protecting your employees, your company’s assets, and the public. One way to mitigate the adverse portrayal of your company’s handling of an emergency, is having spokespersons who are also a part of the plan. They should know how to say things well and how to relay information. Should there be injuries or death involved in the situation, you do not want to be unprepared for what you should/should not say to the media. You will want to know before you experience these situations how you should legally handle the media, the public, other employees, and families.

Finally, you will want to share with your family (or your other close contacts) what your duties and responsibilities will be in work emergency situations. You will want to let them know how to contact you and how you will contact them. Should the disaster be more involved within your community than just your work, you will want to define to them what they should be doing while you are working. Establish your network of family support prior to your being consumed by the responsibilities at work.

As a Christian, remember to have your God plan in place prior to an emergency. If you rely on God in your everyday/everything plans, you will automatically call on Him in emergency situations. If you frequently pause a moment every time you are stressed to bring God into your thoughts and situation, you will automatically pause to let Him fill you with His love and serenity during stressful emergencies. If you have turned to God in times of grief and tragedy, you will routinely turn to Him when faced with the horror of an emergency. This will be your life line as a supervisor during chaos. As with the company’s disaster plan, it can only work if you have the plan in place, have practiced the plan, and if you are committed to the plan.

Psalm 102:1-2 "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily."

Psalm 100:1-5 "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Service the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

Living To Expectations

You can either live up to expectations or live down to expectations. The same is true for your employees. You, as a supervisor, can lead either by positive reinforcement or by negative reinforcement; it’s your choice.

A workforce, family, spouse, children, church, or team can be greatly influenced by the tone set by the leader. If you treat others with a measure of depreciation or low expectation, you may be rewarded for your vision. If you shoot for the bottom rung of the ladder, you will have your less than stellar employees meet that expectation. Your excellent employees may find it’s time to look for a position in another department or company. It’s such a colossal drag to be intelligent, innovative, and eager and be forced to wallow in a stagnant pool of mediocrity.

It does not mean you should set goals that are higher than anyone can possibly achieve. Goals need to be achievable. They should be appropriate for the experience, the age, and the situation.
Inspiration and positive expectations must be sincere to be effective. Manipulating the emotions of your employees will guarantee a slow down in productivity. The hard part of motivation is if you, as the supervisor and leader, have not bought into the goal. It is very hard to lead a team over the meadow when you always think there is a cliff to jump off behind the trees.

Front line supervisors may not know or understand the entire vision for a large corporation. This is where staying committed to the goal will be most difficult for you. To make it easier to understand, set the goals you and your employees can understand. These may be tangible goals that reflect your department's work. An example:

You have been asked to have your department increase production 25% by year end. You know it is possible but you don’t see any reason to increase your production when the rest of the company doesn’t seem to be increasing their output. What good will it do to have your people bust their hide when it will just sit in some warehouse waiting for the other departments to catch up on their parts and finishing? This would be the thought of a supervisor who hasn’t bought into a vision (alas, an unknown vision). For some reason, you do not trust those running your company enough to think positively. Your leaders may want to experiment with one department to see if the entire company can step up to expansion. They may want to do this gradually in an effort to not invest money if it can’t be accomplished. They would not explain this to lower management because it involves speculation and that involves money. This is just one typical example of not knowing the big picture. While this practice allows upper management to make wise choices, it requires middle management to have faith.

If you cannot muster enough faith in your company’s leadership, you should look for work elsewhere. You are not giving your best and you will be dragging your employees down to your level. If you do have the kind of faith that allows you to lead with optimism, your employees will catch that mood. Granted, there may be a few who do not want to be enthusiastic but that’s another issue.

The most dynamic leaders inspire others to invent, to conquer, to surpass goals, and to be examples themselves. It all starts with you, the supervisor. Job 32:8 "But there is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding."

Fidel Castro - Not Supervisory Excellence

The news picked up the story showing Cubans celebrating and marching in parades when it was broadcast Fidel Castro might be dying. Not to make light of the horrible things he accomplished during his reign, but the man has not been a poster boy for supervisory excellence. It brought to my mind the supervisory "failures" I have known during my working career. None could ever begin to hold a candle to the lows’ old Fidel (or other countries’ dictators) have slid but they have had their share of examples of what not to do. In the interest of reverse instruction, I’ll share a few examples.

Being the butt of a rather harmless practical joke, one supervisor jumped on top of his desk and jumped up and down screaming. Sadly, this man died of a heart attack at an early age. A mandatory class in anger management might have saved his life.

When a female office worker’s child had chicken pox, she stayed home with him until her husband got home then came in at night and got all her work done. The man who hired her had told her this was permitted. The new supervisor, just arrived, decided for every daytime hour she missed, he would deduct that much time from her vacation. The fact she had all her work done and came in at nights, with a sick child at home, meant nothing. When questioned, he said, "My wife said this is how I should handle the situation." A call to Human Resources or the previous supervisor might have been a better source for personnel decisions.

Or the following "Dilbert" type comments taken from real work quotes:

"As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday, and employees will receive their cards in two weeks."

"What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter."

"E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business."

"This project is so important we can't let things that are more important interfere with it."

"Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule."

"No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them."

Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say."

A woman’s sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When she told her Boss, he said, "She died on purpose so that you would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year." He then asked her if they could change her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me (the supervisor)."

"We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees."

When the corporation was going through a buy out and organizational changes, many "Dilbert" cartoons started making appearances on the walls of cubes. The company issued a memo, "As of immediately, employees will not post any Dilbert cartoons on office walls or dividers." Oh, yeah, that made the problems go away.

I sometimes wonder at the grand industrial and commercial work environments that can still turn out the best products, with exceptional quality, while dealing with supervisors in the clueless stage of their careers. It speaks well of the average American worker. Cuban citizens celebrated a hopeful end of Castro’s suppression and persecution of human rights. Likewise, I have seen American workers celebrate when a boss has been transferred or fired. Celebrating the death of a dictator or the leaving of a supervisor is certainly a sad legacy to a career.

Young Enough To Be My Grandchild

I just finished reading another article stating the general characteristics for each generation of working Americans. It takes the study that classifies the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, GenX, and the latest into what an employer should expect in the way of work habits, goals, how to talk to them, their needs and general feelings about work. It can be helpful when you are trying to motivate, assign tasks, and relate.

If you are an older supervisor (let's say Baby Boomer and older), you will have more and more younger employees working for you. You may even work for them.

If you are a younger supervisor (GenX and below) you will be dealing for a good many years with older supervisors and employees. When that situation stops, you will be the older generation.

At times during my career, I found myself mystified by the different thought processes of my employees from different generations. Also, at times, I was just as mystified by the different thought processes of men, those from different social circles, races, religions, towns, regions of the state, education, and just about every other things that could make us different from each other. In other words, you must handle each work situation and worker as an individual. That doesn't sound too earth shaking because it is so simple. It doesn't need formulas, generalities, tests, or labels. It simply requires you to treat each person in your working environment with the same respect you treat those that make you comfortable and compatible.

One treatment I had to learn as I got older, "Don't try to mother an employee." I wouldn't mother the CEO that is twenty years older than me so why would I feel it was appropriate to mother the one twenty years younger? Instead of using the formula to classify or box in generations, treat each person with equal respect for their differences.

Leviticus 26:9 "For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you." God is asking us to be obedient to his guidance.

Not Another Meeting

Do you sometimes wish you could bury your head in ice during those boring, content zero, bla bla bla meetings? Corporate America struggles to find the line between running a kingdom and the chaos of no leadership. In an effort to find that line, meetings to distribute information, gain insight, get feedback and educate became routine and normal. The down side is the effectiveness of meetings are seldom evaluated. The balance of producing excellent results against a total waste of time/dollars.

Raise your hands:

1. Have you ever sat in an unproductive meeting?
2. Have you ever heard repetitive information?
3. Have you been in a meeting that didn't apply to you or your work?
4. Have you ever heard a presentation so disorganized it was worthless?
5. Have you ever had to work overtime to make up for time wasted in meetings?
6. Have you ever sat through a meeting that was chaired by someone only interested in hearing his own voice?
7. Have you ever taken caffeinated drinks, chocolate, sugar or gum to stay awake?
8. Have you ever thought about plunging a pencil into your right hand?

OK, the last one was a bit much but maybe.... Yet over and over both we and our employees have these meeting experiences. Quantity of meetings does not mean a better educated employee, it does not mean the presenter is good or important, and it does not mean the company is better than prior to the meeting.

Suggestions on DO NOT:

1. Act flippant at serious questions or blow off concerns based on anger, misunderstanding or not knowing enough about the subject. Everyone should be treated with respect.
2. Hesitate to expect employees to be respectful to you (and others) in the meeting. Gently but firmly insist upon no side bar discussions, no sleeping, no eating (if that is your policy), no text messaging, no I-pods, no answering e-mails, and anything you feel disrupts a good fast meeting. If everyone concentrates, it produces a better product in a shorter amount of time. Many times people are doing these because they should not be in your meeting.
3. Have a meeting when a memo or e-mail can get out the information.
4. Have a meeting right after lunch or right before quitting time.
5. Make stupid jokes.
6. Invite people who have nothing to add, nothing to learn, or no business being there.
7. Repeat information for late arrivals (let them catch up on their own time.)
8. Review charts and graphs step-by-step in meetings. It puts people to sleep.
9. Hand out copies of your overheads until the end of the meeting.
10. Use overheads unless there is no other way to tell your story. They are over-used and the dark room puts people to sleep.
11. Have a Q&A session unless you plan to answer every question (either at the meeting or in follow-up form).
12. Call a meeting if you are angry - settle down or your presentation will either scare, make defensive, or make angry the attendees.

Suggestions to DO:

1. Start exactly on time, every time.
2. Tell the participants the exact time the meeting will end and end it at that time.
3. Send an agenda out before the meeting.
4. Tell the attendees ahead of time what you want from them or the purpose of the meeting. This allows them to think prior to the meeting; shortening the think time saves money.
5. Send any material (attachments, graphs, charts) they should read BEFORE the meeting to keep you from reading in the meeting. This saves time and it is boring to hear people read.
6. Only use a dark room if you have something really really exciting to present which includes sound and action.
7. Supply note books & pens if you expect people to make notes. Or make sure you tell them they must bring to the meeting themselves.
8. KISS: Keep it short & simple.
9. Set a goal for the meeting and track if you met that goal.
10. Have a trusted person tell you how the meeting really went. Accepting their feedback with thanks and taking the facts into consideration not defensively.
11. Be innovative. If your voice or presentation skills are lacking, find something or some way to present the information in another way. Use a junior employee to help talk. Use music to make an impact. Use a different location than is normally used for meetings.
12. Hold several small meetings rather than one huge meeting where people are a number not a name. People listen better if they feel special to your subject.
13. Hold more meetings that compliment, give inspiration, award, or encourage than are simply informational or negative.
14. Ask a heckler to stop, meet with you later one-on-one, and do it respectfully. Eject them from the meeting if their one aim is to disrupt.
15. Stay in control. Give respect and demand respect.
16. Ask all your employees to hold their meetings with the same set of rules. Ask to see their goals for the meetings and if they met their goals.
17. Occasionally track the amount of time spent on meetings multiplied by the number of employees attending multiplied by each of their hourly salaries. It is sobering and it may be affecting your production.
18. Realize time is money. Money (or what it does if you are non-profit) is why your organization exists. Making meetings productive is essential to that bottom line.

Someone's Been Killed

I worked for a corporation that had many jobs considered high risk. That's a gentle way of saying, "People get hurt and killed doing their work." We worked very hard at safety, better than most companies. As I picked up the company news journal today, I read one of our linemen was killed while working at restoring power following the two huge storms that ripped through the St. Louis area last month. I don't know the circumstances of this deadly accident, but the bottom line is a husband and father will no longer go home to his family when the work day is done.

I was blessed during my twenty years at this company to never have had to knock on the door of my employee's home with the tragic news of lost life. There were injuries but not fatalities. I was also blessed by having my career start in an area where employees felt personally responsible for everyone's safety and they held each other accountable. This was remarkable for the fact we were a union shop. Not remarkable that union employees choose to work safe - after all it is their lives on the line. Remarkable that both local union and management chose to work in tandem on the safety program.

Remarkable does not mean it just happened with no give and take, no conflict, no accidents, no discipline, and no rewards. I grant you, our employees were more mature and intelligent on what it takes to work safe. They thought things through, they called each other on the carpet when things got lax. They put the pressure on each other when stupid mistakes led to near misses. They got really mad when someone put another's safety in jeopardy. Although top company management sometimes made it difficult for supervisors to run a tight ship on safety and union management sometimes wanted to tinker with their members successful way of accomplishing safety - we all held firm.

We were often asked how our gas and electric departments had company records for years without a lost time accident. I'd say it was mutual respect, mutual accountability and we cared about each other. You can not have a successful safety program without those three things on the part of management and on the part of the those you supervise. I did not enforce any safety rule that I was not willing to do myself. I followed all company safety rules. Simple. If you allow one safety rule to slip, you have just told your employees, "Safety doesn't really matter." If I did not obey one safety rule, I had just said, "Safety is just talk." We may have thought a rule was silly or poorly orchestrated but we all knew we would obey the entire safety manual. Again, it made it simple.

I believe in rewarding good safety. I'd scrape up every cent I could find to bring celebrations to safe employees. And celebrations we had! You reward employees with things that mean something to them. In our case, it was food; lots of it and high quality. "Don't give me an engraved crystal vase; give me a big juicy steak or pork chop.", was the motto. We also celebrated during company time because a few hours of celebrating working safe meant we would not be taking many hours to handle accident claims. Rewarding safety is like balancing the budget. You have things that keep safety on everyone's mind in a good way which is a credit. Or, you can handle the many hours of making reports, investigating, disciplining, or visiting the funeral home which makes a debit. Pretty simple and very effective. Spend time keeping safety in front of your employees and it increases the company's bottom line.

That doesn't mean it was all fun and games. It is just as important to discipline poor safety work habits. There are accidents (things that could not be prevented by the employee) and there are mistakes (things contributed by the employee). All should be reviewed in detail, documented, and shared with everyone who performs that kind of work. If an employee does something against company safety rules and there is a near miss or an actual injury, someone needs to be disciplined. Even if the person making the mistake is injured, they still need some kind of discipline. It is cause and effect every time that holds employees to a higher standard. Your employees are talented and intelligent human beings (if not, why do you have them on your payroll). If you perform your supervisory duties with compassion and fairness every time, your employees will know you care about their well being. If you play favorites, skip some steps, don't follow through on all the rules, don't hold employees accountable, you may as well kiss your safety records good-bye.

A few suggestions: Don't jump to conclusions without a complete investigation. Always document everything you see and hear. Always let the employee know you are happy they were not injured or sad they were injured no matter who is at fault. Realize if you are in a union shop and there is a grievance filed on safety discipline, it only means they are doing their union job. If you have been fair and have all your facts, there is no employee or union member that doesn't understand that kind of discipline. After all, your working very hard at protecting and educating their members so they may be physically able to come to work the next day, go home to their families, and work until retirement. Plus, no supervisor, no union agent, no fellow employee wants to go to calling hours and face that person's family knowing they didn't do everything possible to prevent that situation.

Proverbs 3:21- "My son let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble."

I dedicate this message to all the employees who have lost their lives through on-the-job accidents. May their families, friends and fellow employees hold on to God for strength and care.

Encapsulated By God

How many times have you heard, "God is my personal Savior?" Yet, we don't really put that in action most of the time. We sometimes think of God sitting on his throne, on the stage of the civic center and we're just one of many screaming cheering fans out of the thousands in the audience. We read the Bible much like we just bought the latest Clancy novel; with little thought that it is exclusively written for you not for millions of book sales. When we pray we often pray to "God in Heaven". It is an abstract thought not related to the God that is inside your very heart and soul. He not only lays his hand across the multitudes, He lays it on your head - that is on your very own physical head as you would a child. We know He is our Father but we seldom visualize Him as this father who had anything to do with our birth, our growth, and our development. Technically, God is our very own personal birth father and He has had everything to do with your birth, your growth, and your development. We know we are a child of God but do we run to Him with our every hurt, new found idea, excitement and thought? Do we run to Him knowing He has the power to kiss it and make it better? If you don't have that kind of intimate relationship with God, you are distancing yourself from the very relationship God wants with you. Matthew 23:9 "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."

You can not have an intimate relationship unless you reach out and take His hand, you embrace Him in your arms in a bear hug, you look up into His magnificence with childlike wonder, you devour His scripture with knowledge there are instructions specifically written for your day, and you lay your head in His lap for the comfort of the perfect Father.

My father was not perfect and neither was yours. No man is a perfect father no matter how much we try. Then why do we not respond to God the Father in the way we always wanted in our relationships? Malachi 2:10 "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?..." Why do we keep Him at arms length or in the abstract? We are free and invited into this personal relationship. We accepted that relationship when we professed our belief in God through the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:12-13 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." We accepted that our sins were forgiven (something you will never totally find in earthly relationships) and we were granted admission into His Heavenly Home. Christians need to put these things in the real and the now. You and I can have this gift of an encapsulated personal relationship with God by allowing it to happen.

Walk through the halls of your work today, through the rooms at home, inside the church walls this week knowing YOU are one-on-one with your Father. John 8:42 "Jesus said unto them, "If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.""

My Old Lady

Having worked among quantities of men in the corporate world, I was always dismayed to hear them talking about their stay-at-home wives in negative terms. I found it difficult to hold my tongue when I knew there was a spouse being verbally berated to other workers. I found it even more difficult when I knew the spouse was treated with a lack of respect when that worker arrived home. It happened too often and by too many men; even Christian men. Here are some thoughts to ponder:

Stay-at-home moms, homemakers, domestic dives:

Through whatever set of circumstances, these women stay home while their spouses work outside the home. Although there are all levels of competency and dedication among them, their work at home is often not easy. It is grunge work involving touching things that most people find disgusting. (The amount of discharges from a family of human bodies that one woman can clean up would send sanitary workers running for a new line of work.) It is a balancing act between teaching children everything they will ever need to know in the entire world and being a seductive affectionate lover to their spouse. It is having to counsel without a degree and failure is not an option. It's running a four star restaurant on limited funds. It's stocking a warehouse where the supplier and consumer change daily. To many it's teaching twelve years of school to children in an effort to instill a Christian education while making sure they have enough social contact to function well once they leave home. It's always a chess game to find, move, and organize the home's finances. And so much more. Yet I often heard their spouses describe them in terms of "Not carrying her load." or "All she does is shop; how hard can that be?" or "I wish I had it that easy." or "Can you believe, she expected me to watch the kids while she ran around shopping." or "I need the down time; she needs to keep the kids quiet." or "I came home and there she was wearing a sweat suit and smelling like baby spit up." or "My mother would have never let that happen." "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself;" That would be in your heart and thoughts as well as what comes out of your mouth.

Often these men feel their wives are not as smart or business savvy because they don't deal with the same issues. They often unload on these ladies because they need someone to dump all the frustrations from work on since they can't unload at work. Since their wives don't have to put up with corporate America or owning their own business, they feel justified "sharing" all the negativity they experience at work without consideration for their wife's full day. Christian men are often the most guilty of this behavior because their wives practice Godly designed service and obeying. These Christian women try to support and not add additional worries for their husbands. "Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Little by little I saw many of these women (and sometimes their children) become the dumping ground for every negative experience, every bad mood, every fit of temper, and every frustration from unmet perfections. The men became so wrapped up in their work, they hardly noticed the negative effect it had upon this woman they had vowed to honor and respect. "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. " There is a huge responsibility in being the head of the wife as Christ took on the huge responsibility of being head of the church. He did not demean the church, use it only for his own gratification, disrespect, or dishonor. It says "savior" of your wife - that means you rescue her. You are commanded by God to do no less.

Men sometimes compare their wives to the women at work. The women at work must look presentable every day by start time. Many also have families and they do carry a huge load by doing both. For a man to come home to a stay-at-home wife expecting to see the unreal story book June Cleaver, is setting the marriage up for eventual failure. Comparing your wife to the women at work, either in your mind or to your wife, is the beginning of infidelity.

If you have a stay-at-home wife, make sure you are honoring God's instructions for that marriage. Jesus never treated his mother with anything but honor and respect. Are you so much more important in this working world that your spouse deserves less? Are the lives of your children so unimportant you minimize the efforts of their mother? Are your creature comforts or worldly lusts so important they must take away from the well being of your spouse? Is your intelligence, your daily work schedule, your work accomplishments, your work tribulations at this one job so much more important than the many jobs your spouse juggles successfully? I sincerely hope your answer to these questions reflect God's purpose for you in your marriage. "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."

All Biblical quotes are from Ephesians 5, The Open Bible, authorized King James Version.

Supervision 101

Corporate America is a great place to get examples for supervisory training. There is always one of everything in this vast employee melting pot. Since I worked for a large corporation and still have family and friends working for some of the largest employers in the world, I'm never at a loss for examples.

In the corporate world, new supervisors are often placed in departments that pretty much run themselves. They are staffed by employees who have been with the company for many years, know their stuff, and could function quite well without any supervision. They may be specifically trained for their work, such as trades people, journeymen, possess advanced degrees in a targeted unique field, or have worked their way up the ladder from "the floor". Because they are so self sufficient, they have been training new supervisors for years. They've seen the best and the worst. For the best, they share their knowledge and will be a participant in your supervisory grooming. For the worst, they can make your life miserable until the day they celebrate your leaving. If you're the best, they will remain a blessing your entire career. If you're the worst, you will shudder every time you cross paths with them in the hallway.

Here are some truths:

You will be watched by your supervisor to see if you can cut it with this experienced team. Your boss will watch production, how you interact with his team and talk to them about you. They are in your supervisor's confidence and has their loyalty. They are the team. You are just wanting to be on the team.

Your new reports will be watching you to see what kind of person has been foisted on them. They will complain that you know nothing and "Not another one!" Truth is, most really don't care what you know about the department's specific jobs. Most will teach you because they enjoy teaching others. What will determine IF they teach you, is your attitude toward them, toward the assignment and learning, and toward your boss. Here are a few hints:

Chances are most people in this department will be older than you. They will have been working since before you were born. Many have served in the armed forces and saw friends die, have gone through family tragedies, currently make a good living, have grandchildren, are loyal to the company and have a life you will never imagine. They don't need to impress you and you don't impress them. They may be gruff, downright mean, may mother you, or ignore you.

If you go into this situation with the right attitude toward others, it could be one of the great gifts of your career. The Christian spirit of service will go long and hard being accepted into this environment. A commitment to learning everything possible about the company policy for your group, about your supervisory duties, and learning all the nuts and bolts on how to make your department run smoothly. Expecting your employees to teach you these things shows them you have little initiative. You may find this department has one big trouble-making individual. This person will feel it is his or her duty to put you through the mill and will take you to the edge. Knowing company policy and rules will allow you to treat this person fairly while protecting the company. Knowing and making firm company policy will show the department and your supervisor you have maturity.

You will make mistakes. Having a sense of humor and being self depreciative about your own frailties goes a long way with the experienced staff. Your Christian compassion for others, your mission of service to others, your taking God along as your mentor, are all basics for successfully navigating your new supervisory role.

Treat this opportunity as on-the-job supervisory training. You have been given some of the best teachers in the corporation. Proverbs 11:18 "The wicked worketh a deceitful work but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward."

What Price Arrogance?

One of the most pervasive attitudes I encountered when I was among management personnel was arrogance. As defined in the dictionary: "A feeling of superiority or an offensive exhibition of it. Presumptuous or overbearing conduct, statements, etc., resulting from such a feeling. Syn.: haughtiness, disdain. Arrogant: Making unwarrantable claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights. Characterized by or proceeding from arrogance." None of that description is very pretty and none is a welcome companion to the work place. Yet, why do we as a society worship the attitude of arrogance?

How much play time do celebrities get when they display arrogance? How often is "an attitude" a means of getting noticed in the work place? How many millions of dollars are spent to hear about arrogance/attitude? It's a cheap and easy method for those without other redeeming characteristics to be noticed. That may sound harsh but if these people had good ideas, good intentions, good work ethics, good moral fiber, and used their God given talents, using the attitude of arrogance would not be valuable to them. Elevating the arrogance and attitude to celebrity status is worshiping the wrong set of standards.

Proverbs 8:13 "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate." When a person brags up their self it is arrogance. A person who finds it necessary to pretend they are more than they really are is practicing arrogance. In the work place arrogance may be exhibited:

They know it all. Always trying to answer the questions or offering the only solutions. An attitude of being better than their peers. The all too famous "put down" of others and their ideas. Bragging about what you have, where you went to school, who you know, how close you are to the boss, the projects you have initiated or completed, your chairmanship or leader of the committee, your memberships, and on and on and on.

What does this attitude of arrogance bring? In the beginning, it may push the career forward. There are always the gullible who believe if someone has an attitude, they must deserve our respect. I've watched many an attitude of arrogance slowly and surely kill careers and projects. An advantage of many years in the work place, you get to see the fruitation or the demise of careers. You see patterns. The pattern of arrogance will be one of failure. Isaiah 13:11 "And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." God promises to punish the arrogance of the proud - I'm thinking that is career failure to the maximum.

I found it was better to let the arrogant go their merry way making their claims of greatness. Seldom do the arrogant care what others may think; after all if you are on their self described level of omnipotence who needs the advice of the lowly? It is mostly with sadness to watch a fellow employee elevate themselves to this depth of sin. And it is always sad to see them crash. I have watched many an arrogant employee crash and it is always with a look of amazement upon their face to realize their sham of arrogance didn't sell forever. At this point, some become humbled and can reflect on their mistake of arrogance. It is with great prayer for this saving Grace. Matthew 16:26 "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Take the lesson to your heart and avoid the sin of arrogance and pride. Pity and pray for those afflicted that they may be humbled before they come before God for His judgment. Matthew 18:4 "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Who The Devil Is That?

We have been experiencing an extremely hot and humid spell of weather. A fellow was interviewed last evening about the heat. He said, "I think I just passed the devil and he was smiling." Everyone laughed about his reference to it being so hot the devil was in residence.

NEWS FLASH: The devil (Satan) is living on earth and he is laughing.

Even some Christians view Satan and evil as a pseudo-intellectual story one would use to frighten little children into being good. He's the opposite of Santa or at the very most a parable. In reality, the Bible explains the devil/Satan in very explicit terms. No where does it say he does not currently reside on earth. No where does it say he does not currently practice evil. No where does it say he will not attack humans right here every day and in every way.

To believe Satan lives on earth, we must believe he is involved in every person's life. To believe he is involved in all our lives, we must believe he is in the work place. I know, most everyone who read the previous sentence will have a face flash before your eyes. No, I'm not talking about someone who is so hard to work with they must be Satan in the flesh. I'm talking about all the evil working in everyone's personal life. We all have it and you, supervisor, are managing a workforce that struggles with evil every day; you may struggle with evil in your personal thoughts every day.

I found a conference call to my Lord every morning prior to work helped keep me focused on His desire for my actions during the day. I would ask for a meeting with God anytime I felt Satan working the crowd. I would call a time-out when I needed to refresh myself during a particularly rough assault. God would listen to my silent prayers and pleas in the middle of a meeting. I had a visualization I used of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, standing by my right shoulder. He had His hand on my shoulder: comforting, encouraging, supporting, educating, protecting, listening and most of all always being there. Pushed into bad situations, I would lay my hand on His for just a second. It wasn't that I saw God, it was that I physically and mentally focused on His presence in my life. I did it almost subconsciously and it so worked! I was grasping for His presence in my life and He was always there. That alone gave me the serenity to keep going.

As you encounter evil in your daily life, from attacks by Satan on yourself or others, keep God involved. Satan isn't some long forgotten story about ancient times, (I Chronicles 21:1 "And Satan stood up against Israel...") . Satan isn't a cartoon character or halloween costume, (Zechariah 3:1 "And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.") Satan isn't waiting to do his evil at end times, (Luke 22:31 "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.") Satan isn't covering himself with fire or have lightening come out of his fingertips (II Corinthians 11:3, 14-15 "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.")

Let the Lord's presence rest upon your shoulder, (II Corinthians 2:11 "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.") The Lord will be your way through the evil of Satan, (Ephesians 6:11 "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.") It will take you into tomorrow and into your salvation, (Ephesians 6: 12-16 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; And all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith, ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.")

Is it the devil? Oh, yes. But, then there is God!