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Show Notes
Presented by Lauren Stibgen
We all spend so much time at work. In fact, on average, we will spend about 90,000 hours working over the span of our lifetime. This is one-third of all our waking hours! Given how much time we spend in our workplaces, it is not surprising we want to find community and relationships at work. We can develop friendships that last. While statistics vary between 70-85%, on average, most workers report they have some kind of friendship at work. The statistics are lower for the reporting of a best friend, down to 50%.
What if you are a person in the 15-30% category who reports having no social friendship at work? Although this doesn’t mean you have no community or friends, it suggests you are spending one-third of your waking hours without a friendly connection.
Perhaps your specific job makes it hard to connect with other people. Does your role automatically draw judgement from others? I find it funny that often one of the most relational departments, human resources, can often draw the most judgement. Perhaps it is because this department holds the keys to so many hot button employment related issues like pay, benefits, hiring and firing, and compliance and investigations! Sure, the work can be good, until it isn’t! It is good news when they hire a great person for a team but bad news during a layoff. Good news when they add a terrific benefit but bad news when the cost of the benefits goes up!
If you work in human resources, I am sure you’re familiar with some employees’ visceral reaction of, “Uh-oh, here comes HR.” I am sure there are other departments like risk and compliance and sometimes IT that face this same experience and hold a balance between being heroes and then not being very liked at all.
Imagine for a moment, a worker from the Bible, Zacchaeus. He was the proverbial tax man during the time of Jesus. Described as a man small in stature, he climbed a tree just to see Jesus. For sure, Zacchaeus was doing his job as chief tax collector, but he was also taking more than he should have and not being very honest. I would guess he was not a very liked guy, and he probably did not have many friends at work. In comes Jesus! He calls Zacchaeus from the tree and asks to have dinner at his house! You can read more in Luke 19:1-10, but Zacchaeus follows Jesus and returns his dishonest gain.
If you work in a position that makes others skeptical, remember Jesus sees you. If building relationships at work seems difficult, turn to your first and best relationship with him.