Fear In The Workplace?
I've spent some considerable time in workplaces where an undercurrent of fear was ever-present. Have you? If so, like me, you likely don't wish this on anyone.
What is this fear? It can come from a boss who uses it as a motivating factor to keep folks on their toes. Not that it's really effective. But some bosses think it is. It's tough working in such an environment.
Here's another sort of fear: A company I worked for was subjected to a hostile takeover. When new management arrived, everyone was afraid of being dumped. Indeed, in only a few months I - along with many others - was laid off. Fear was a constant companion during those months.
So fear can be disruptive in the workplace. But that's not the fear we're going to focus on today. Today, continuing our efforts to follow the Rule of St. Benedict as a way to establish stability in our workplace, we move to what our saint calls the "first degree of humility." We hit on the virtue of humility previously, but now we're going to follow along with several degrees of this all-important virtue. And this "first degree" St. Benedict references is "fear of God." As he writes:
"The first degree of humility, then, is that a man keep the fear of God before his eyes, altogether shunning forgetfulness."
Heading straight to our workplace, we want to do two things here: 1) Keep the fear of God present in our soul as we work through the day; 2) Do all we can to avoid "forgetting" Him as we go about our work.
Developing our sense of the fear of God will help us to always do what is right and just in our daily work. Our fear is not so much a cowering sort of behavior. It's driven instead by our recognition that God is Almighty, and so deserves deference and subservience. He is, as well, our loving Father Who created us and offers us eternal glory and happiness, a share in His own glory and happiness. Thus we fear offending Him out of deference to His power, but also because of our love for Him. Yes, we know He is All-Just. And that does ignite a fear of eternal damnation. But if we truly love God, and desire never to offend Him because He is All-Good and worthy of our love, then our fear grows primarily from that love.
Our daily work should reflect this. Of course, a busy day can easily and frequently does erase any memory of God. The day begins, we become fully absorbed in our work. Before we know it, the work day ends. We look back and find we didn't give even the God the slightest nod. I can tell you I've had many such days.
Fortunately, in His love for us, and with His Divine Wisdom, God knows how we creatures can only manage so much, especially when work presses in with deadlines and lots to do to meet them - never mind the sometimes constant interaction some of us have with customers, bosses, fellow workers, etc. He doesn't expect us to constantly keep Him front and center as we work. He knows we must concentrate on the task at hand so that our work will be done with fervor and exactness.
But still, we can try to acknowledge His Presence at least at some point as we plow through the day. Our good intention rides to the rescue here.
If we can get into the habit of beginning our day with the sincere intention of keeping God present, that intention will override the circumstances that might keep our attention totally wrapped up in our work.
And we can take yet another step to keep His Presence before us if we can develop the practice of praying aspirations from time to time during the day in a recollected manner. This allows us to recognize God's presence, even if only for a few seconds. A simple "I love You Jesus" might be all it takes.
"Let him ever remember all the commandments of God, an how hell will burn for their sins those that despise him; and let him constantly turn over in his heart the eternal life which is prepared for those that fear him."
Simple. Straightforward. The commandments serve as clear and consistent standards for all our thoughts, words, and deed throughout the work day. We Catholics know this. But we need to work at it, not pay it lip service. If we have the habit of examining our conscience each day, we might give special attention to how we applied ourselves to our work, and how we treated the people with whom we came in contact. It doesn't have to be an exhausting process. Most of us naturally know what's right and wrong, good and bad. We can scan the work day and see how we did in this light.
We'll continue next time with how fear in the workplace can increase stability in the workplace.
We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee
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