Headstart - Unfiltered #3: I have a good job (tbh I want to move on)
Louisa is a young worker and Headstarter. If you come on a Monday Headstart, you will probably find her next to the sushi (along with Lisa). If you bumped into her after work, you’d probably find her with friends sampling Sydney’s finest gourmet food or with friends cashing in on a groupon or dominating some noob friends at Timezone. Check out her summary of Unfiltered #3: I have a good job (tbh I want to move on) How to change jobs and leave with integrity
Night in a tweet: When the loves of our heart are ordered well, we can be confident to change jobs and leave with integrity.
Transitioning between jobs is inevitable at some point in our careers. A comment, from tonight’s discussion, struck me as I realised that how we go about leaving our jobs can be a critical point in our witnessing as Christian workers. From slandering to slacking off, there are many ways to leave a poor last impression. We’ve all heard or seen it happen. How can we ensure that we transition between jobs with integrity? Perhaps it starts at the hesitation…
The hesitation: Have you ever felt like it’s time for a change? Are you receiving LinkedIn messages offering you an opportunity to change companies? Is it even okay to be thinking about changing jobs when everything is objectively ‘good’? These were some questions I’ve once pondered on and, for a good period of time, I hesitated on whether to do something about it. In the spirit of this term’s theme, Unfiltered, these were some of my unfiltered thoughts at the time - am I being ungrateful? Unloyal? Greedy? Feeling FOMO on what else is out there?
Tim dug into the scriptures to see how we might work through our hesitation when thinking about changing jobs. We looked at three characters in the Bible who meet Jesus - Zacchaeus (Luke 19), Saul/Paul (Acts 9), and the rich young ruler (Matt 19) and saw that the first one stayed in his job after meeting Jesus, the second one changed his job after meeting Jesus and the final one didn’t change when he should have! Overall, this showed there is no inherent right or wrong in staying or leaving a job. Christians have complete freedom as there is no privileged position. The better more fundamental question Jesus asked in all three was to reflect on their loves. Their hearts. That was the checkpoint, no the outcome of staying or leaving.
God isn't so concerned about what job you’re doing but rather how you are doing your job and how you go about changing jobs.
Getting practical
Are the loves of your heart in order? Or does your love for money, reputation or control have a grip on you right now? Invite and embrace the wisdom of your Christian community who can help reveal the hidden sin in our hearts! Although we can exercise the freedom to choose our jobs, we do not want to leave and/or start a job with a disordered love in our hearts. For what outflows from our hearts are the emotions and behaviours that align to it (Proverbs 4:23).
- Be intentional about leaving your job well! Here are some of Tim’s top tips on how:
- Beware of the smear - avoid gossip/bad mouthing. You can't smear others without smearing yourself.
- Turn on your thankfulness radar – who can you say thank you to?
- Play hard, right until the buzzer – align with your boss on what finishing well looks like for them!
What I left thinking about?
In a society that encourages us to jump to the highest paying job, the best company perks, and most reputable job titles, we can feel stuck – should I go, should I stay? Will it be better? Will it be worse? I just don’t know. We need a circuit breaker to free us and get us unstuck. Allowing Jesus and the gospel to re-order the loves of our messy hearts, as we saw in the stories of Zacchaeus and Saul/Paul, frees us to decide with confidence and positions us to transition with integrity. What loves do you need to surrender in your heart to Jesus for him to re-order?
