Is it payday yet?

What’s the one time an employer fears an employee?

When an employee has given his or her notice they will be terminating their employment.

What scares an employer about that?

The act of an employee announcing they are leaving the company is the employee stating they do not need the employer. If the employer isn’t needed, he fears the productivity of the employee during their remaining days will wane.

Several years ago, I was working with the vice president of a national company who taught his senior managers to focus on hiring people who needed their jobs. He encouraged his managers to especially hire people who were married and had both children and mortgages; those people need their paychecks, he taught. The VP believed the need for a consistent paycheck was a primary motivator for employees to do their jobs well and stay with a company instead of looking for greener pastures.

That vice president had one point right: many people work from an attitude of “need.” They do need a regular paycheck coming in, and can’t afford not to be working.

The point the vice president missed is, working from a “need attitude” is also a constraining influence on the quality of work and productivity of employees. When we work from need, we do a good enough job to keep us employed, but that’s usually as far as we go.

The Apostle Paul teaches us to go farther than that.

First, he writes, “And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father,” in Colossians 3:17. Then, he gets even more specific:

“Slaves [or in our day, employees], obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites,” Colossians 3:22-25.

A regular paycheck shouldn’t be the chief motivator for doing our best in our work; bringing glory to God should be.

For the Christian, our bosses should never have to look over our shoulder, double-check our time cards or expense reports, or scrutinize customer feedback. Our work should be done as if we were serving Christ rather than a boss.

That’s because everything we do should be done to bring glory to God!

As an employee, are your working to the glory of God, or for a paycheck?

Scotty