Needed: Christian Business People

A friend works for a major communications business here in our city. The company is also noted for treating its employees unjustly. For no apparent reason, with no warning, the company decided to shuffle its teams. People would stay on the same team, maybe, but the teams themselves would be retrained for new jobs. This was ok with my friend, as he has been through many company reorganizations, and he is very open to learning new things. But in mixing things up, the changes include changing everybody's hours. So there is a chance that a person might work any time, for the standard 8 hours, anywhere from 8 am and 10 pm. Can you imagine what havoc that will heap on employees and their families? And it's not like there is a choice about overtime--you take it if told to. What makes this especially difficult is that many employees commute great distances to work. Parking is costly, so people carpool whenever possible. Then there are issues regarding daycare and caring for children.

In addition in my friend's group, there are a number of people who are almost at retirement, and they see the company changes as a means the company is using to get them to quit. Believe me, this accusation is based on many previous experiences.

What is unjust is that employees see no recourse and they feel that they are being treated as disposable commodities--not faithful, hardworking people who want to contribute to the company goals.

I have to wonder, who runs this company? And why are they grinding their people into the ground? Surely, they are not Christian. We all want business to be profitable, but isn't part of being profitable, having employees who feel like they have a stake in the well-being of the company and who feel that their work matters?

My dad owned a small business, so I know all about the need for profit. But a successful business makes more than money. It makes people's lives better for working there. Surely that is part of the work ethic and a way that we live out our Christian faith. Maybe we just need more business people who live Monday through Friday like what they profess on Sunday.

Grace, Kathy