This graphic below got me thinking about the little and not-so-little things that used to (back before retirement) make my work life so much more enjoyable. Here is my top four rank ordered for your enjoyment:
- The Work Itself: This one is especially focused on two of my jobs - software design and pastoral ministry. There is just something special about doing something you feel that you were born to do.
- Relationships: When I think about my many years working for AT&T I think about George and Steve and Bryon and Doug.. and the great times I had not only working with these guys but the hours we spent eating BBQ and laughing. The same could be said about my years working at the church.
- Flexible Hours: Back when I began working everyone I knew worked the proverbial nine-to-five forty-hour week. In the late 1980s that began to change.. we still worked 8+ hour days and 40+ hour weeks but our start and stop times were flexible. I loved having this kind of flexibility - it really cut down on my commuting time.
- Casual Fridays: These days in the late 1980s eventually morphed into casual everyday at Bell Labs. There is just something great about not having to dress-up (read that with neck chokers) to sit in a cubicle. This may be one of the best things that Baby Boomers brought to the work place - a focus on excellence in what you do instead of how you look.
What things do you enjoy most about your job? Have things gotten better over the years?
Well, right now as I am unemployed I can't answer you question. As a pastor who soon hopes to plant a church, I can say the things I most enjoy about the priviliege of being a shephered:
ReplyDelete1. To spend many hours studying God's revelation of Himself to us in order to understand it, practice it, and teach it.
2. To share the good news of the grace of God to sinners that if they recognize their sin, repent, and believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ they too can experience this wonderful and amazing grace.
3. To see the lives of people change for the glory of Christ. To see couples marry, who formely were violating God's standards, to see them follow in baptism, to see them grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, to see the treasure Christ more than anything in life including life itself, to see them fulfill their purpose for being born.
4. To partner with the glorious God of this universe in the teaching and making known the mystery of the revelation hidden from eternity pass, revelaed by Paul and the Apostles, inscripturated in holy writ and given to me the responsibility of stewardship, woe is me if I do not preach the glorious gospel of our wonderful and gracious Lord Jesus Christ!
These are the things I enjoy the most about the job I had as pastor and what I hope to enjoy again in the weeks to come as we plant a new church to the glory of God!
Have things gotten bette over the years? Since God is unchanging, that answer would be no. since man waxes worse and more evil and my understanding of the things of God grows, the answer is yes.
Back before retirement there were a few perks that my Hubby and I enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteSince we were in both the travel industry and in trade show management, I guess the biggest perk way travel. Free air and hotel and food perdiems allowed us to stay in places we couldn't afford on our own dime and to eat at restaurants we wouldn't have gone to on our own either. We used those times in New York and other states as jumping off spots to visit friends and relatives.
Working the Specitality Food shows gave us a chance to take home many gourmet products we would have never bought in any store.
Another wonderful perk was the many friends from across the U.S. that we made. Many we still keep in touch with.
Finally, as independent contractors, we were our own bosses and could take or not the jobs that came along. If we took a conference or trade show that was really awful (and there were those) we knew it would be over in 7 to 10 days. We only did on-site work, so there was no office prep or after work untangling of problems. The company always did that. That way we could stand almost anything.
It was a great life of 14 years. I kind of miss it now but its a New Season now.