Give, Give, Give

While having a family dinner together last weekend, everyone was discussing their work situation. We shared with each other how things in the office continuously become more and more demanding. Finally the following statement seemed to sum up our feelings:  "The more you do, the more that is expected from you."

Once everyone had left, I found myself continuing to ponder this statement. Do employers intentionally demand more work with no increase in pay? Is this a trend in American society or is there something about the personalities in my family that draws this response? What response does the Christian have when faced with a similar situation?

I don't think all employers are evil. I don't think they want to see their employees suffer from increased stress levels or eventual burnout. Personally, I find all three of my bosses to be kind-hearted and genuinely concerned about my well-being. So then why do so many people find themselves constantly having more demands placed upon them by employers?

I think the answer is actually quite complicated. An employer is going to hand new responsibilities to an accomplished, competent employee. This sounds like an awesome thing. However, often employers assign new responsibilities based upon the outward appearance of the current situation rather than a thorough investigation of the worker's situation. An employee may appear to have everything running smoothly that is currently on their plate while the truth is that they are racing at full-steam ahead to keep all of the balls in the air. Additionally, an employee who is able to complete a task quickly is often "punished" for their effectiveness by having additional work loaded on top of what they are already juggling.

Additional responsibilities tend to trickle down from the supervisory level. More often than not, work ends up in my lap when one of my supervisors has realized that there is too much on his plate to handle himself, so it gets passed down. This is one of the benefits of working on a close-knit team where everyone is looking out for the good of the whole and makes every effort to insure that overtime that is not paid is given time away from responsibilities to make up the deficit. (By the way, I LOVED having comp time when working for Pepperdine. It made those busy seasons more bearable since I knew there would be days of paid absence coming soon that didn't cut into my accumulated vacation time.)

Generational differences can also cause overload. A previous generation feels that an employee is paid for the number of hours they are working while my generation is anticipating payment for services rendered.  If I can complete my salaried tasks in 15 hours at home, I shouldn't necessarily be consistently given more responsibilities.  Salaries are based on work outcomes; wages are based on hours of labor. Confusion between which type of earnings are being offered can be a major source of contention between employer and employee.

Is there something in my family's makeup that causes this problem to arise for so many of us? I have to say that there probably is. My siblings and I were taught to complete a job with excellence, regardless of how long it takes. We're good employees. As a result of our experience and our work ethic, we often do our tasks fairly rapidly. That's a great thing for the business in crunch time.....not so good for our well-being when it stretches out for months. Combine this with our generally inability to tell a supervisor "no" and you have a formula for disaster.

What's the Christian's response to these situations? I struggle with this one. Often I want to just slow down and do what I can working at everyone else's pace and let the chips fall where they may. Then the call to do everything as unto the Lord rings in my ears and I push myself to perform with excellence. So I walk around stressed out, not certain how I'm going to physically accomplish everything and develop frustration to the point that I don't want to go to work at all. It's a mess and a situation that I'm learning more about. Is there a perfect solution? I don't really think there is. So I'll continue to pray for strength to get through each work day and continue to labor faithfully until God sees fit to open new --and hopefully less stressful -- avenues for me.