I once had a boss who called me Barbara. Granted, there was another woman on our team with that name, but she got called Barbara too. No one got called Jan. That’s my name. I don’t think it’s a complicated name, although sometimes when I go out to eat, order at the counter, and leave my name, they call for “Jane” when my food is ready. Even so. No one at these take out restaurants calls me Barbara and I’m pretty sure the employees there make a lot less than my last boss.
But these are the kinds of things that can happen in the halls of corporate America. Bosses can ignore you, or worse, pay attention and call you the wrong name. Goals change more often than the inventory at TJ Maxx. And forget it if you are still holding out hope that your boss will tell you she really wishes she’d listened to you about the extra resources the team needed to get a project done on time last month. That’s just never going to happen. When a great employee leaves due to all the insanity, the boss would give up Starbucks for a week before admitting it was probably at least partially his fault. Yet, despite all this, there is reason to hope at work.
You see, you are there. And you carry in you the seeds of goodness needed to make your workplace…. well, good. I’ve seen this principle in action. Jose, an HR Manager where I used to work, saved an employee’s job without her ever knowing what he was up to. The only reason I knew anything was going on was because the person he helped had experienced a mini-meltdown in my office that morning. When I asked him what was up, he mentioned possible “restructuring” and job elimination. When he whispered “pray for me!” as he headed out my door, I could tell he was going to try to help this person. So I prayed, just like Jose asked me to. All throughout the day, I prayed. When the dust settled that evening, the restructuring did not eliminate my morning visitor’s position with the company.
I never forgot that day. Jose brought his seeds of caring and kindness to work with him. We prayed. And God, who joins us even in the halls of corporate America, joined us there. Because Jose came to work, God did too. If you are a God seeker, the same is true of you. So don’t be afraid to show it. Be good to others when you can, even when they don’t know it. Help them to keep hoping that what they do and say at work really matters. After all, if it matters to you, it matters.
Who knows? Maybe someone at work is praying for you this morning and you just don’t know it. That happens. Oh, and one more thing. Try to remember folks’ real names whenever possible and call them by that name every chance you get. I’m really hoping you will.