Monday, August 11, 2014

Bullied at work? 13 things you can do.

Blog »   
 
Bullied at work?   13 things you can do.


Monday, August 11, 2014
Jeff Lampl


“Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with
them and not against them . . . . . Don't fret or worry.  Instead of worrying, pray.  Let petitions and praises shape your worries  into prayers, letting God know your
concerns.  Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness,  everything coming
together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens 
when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life”.
 Philippians 4:4-7 (MSG)

Question: As an adult Christian, how do you deal with a bully in the workplace?  You continue to work there because that is what God wants you to do; they want you to quit.   

1.   Choose a godly friend to help you with this, to pray for you and to give you godly
 counsel and to support you in doing the following things

2.   Stay in communication with God about this, always doing more listening than
talking.

3.   You must simply assume that God knows you are there and It’s important not to
 waste the time you have where work rather than pining away your time hoping
 to 
get out of there.
 
4.   If it’s clear God wants you stay there (economics may be a good enough reason)
 the Christian thing to do is to work hard, do your best to respect the position of
 the bullier and to show respect to him or her.   Return good for evil.

5.   Do not speak negatively about her him behind that person’s back

6.   Do your best to lead upwards. That means pray about the situation, rise above it
 watch the co-worker, learn what he needs to be a better person and then do that
 
which might grow him. God has you there for a reason and that reason might be
 the bully.

7.   Show the person you genuinely care about her or him as person. Even if you
 don’t, decide to.

8.   Ask the person about her or his family and be genuinely interested.

9.   It’s also extremely important to look at yourself and ask if there are any
behaviors or attitudes that you have that might invite people to bully you.

10. Do not confront, rather Care-front.  It is always helpful to speak the truth in love.
 So do out of strength not weakness. If his bullying is a danger to others you may
 need to bring that up to him.  Resist going over the person’s head without
 somehow in some way honoring God’s teaching to talk to the offending person
 first.

11.  Accept the reality that life is not fair and life will never be fair.

12.  Remember that next place you go may not be any better.

13.  If it becomes too intolerable you may need to find another job.  

I find the following quote from Tim Keller to helpful.  

"If laypeople cannot find any spiritual meaning in their work, they are condemned to living a certain dual life; not connecting what they do on Sunday morning with what they do the rest of the week.  They need to discover that the very actions of daily life are spiritual, and enable...people to touch God in the world, not away from it.  Such a spirituality will say... 'Your work is your prayer.'    Tim Keller

Comment    

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl  

No comments:

Post a Comment