How To Win Over Your Boss

Wisdom nuggets:   "To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labour, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy."

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If you're into bumper-sticker philosophy, you've probably seen the axiom, "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." For a vast portion of the workforce, that's the best reason they can muster for going to the job each day. According to one poll, only 43 percent of American office workers are satisfied with their jobs. In Japan, the figure dips to 17 percent. In the first century, Christian proletariats had even less reason to be enthusiastic about their work. But Paul gave them a way to grasp a glimpse of glory amid the grind. He wanted them to "adorn the doctrine of God," that is, to show the beauty of their faith in God by how they work.

The truth is nothing endears your boss like your attitude to your work. Chances are you may never find the courage to ever talk to your boss about progress but you have a great opportunity to communicate same by your work ethics.

"Subordinates must always obey their bosses and do their best to please them. They must not talk back or steal, but must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about the Almighty attractive in every way."

We saw this when Joseph saved the economy of Egypt and fed the whole world in the famine. Pharaoh, his boss, was so impressed that he asked "who is your father? "Your boss will only be interested in your father when your attitude to work speaks well of him. It was Mother Teresa who said "There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to the Most High and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible."

In September 5, 1994, I read this beautiful passage and saved it ever since. It read: A significant and often overlooked way that we serve Our Maker is in our everyday tasks. Martin Luther understood this when he wrote, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays - not because she may sing a hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.


If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

                                                                                                                    - Bill Gates