Hard Times

Many things happen in our lives and many more will continue to happen. Sometimes it can be difficult going through hard times, and sometimes we may not understand why, but one thing is sure, all things work together for good, according to God's purpose in our lives (Romans 8:28).

If you ask God to answer a need, you can be sure He will answer your prayer, but sometimes the answer can be immediate, sometimes longer, or sometimes you may have to go through it. All prayers are answered, whether now or later, yes or no. All you need to do is trust Him and give your heart to Him (Proverbs 3:5-6). Lay your worries and troubles at His feet and worry no more, for God is with you, He will help you and take care of you (Isaiah 41:10).

Therefore ...
'Do not fear, for I (God) am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' (Isaiah 41:10 NAS)

Remember what Jesus says ...
... ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Luke 11:9 NAS)

Sometimes ...
You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, (James 4:2b-3a NAS)

Therefore ...
... seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33 NAS)

Do not worry then, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear for clothing?' ... for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. (Matthew 6:31-32 NAS)

So ...
... do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34 NAS)

Problem with Corporate Management

Many of us working in organisations often wonder why the management seems to always make lives difficult for their staff.

We constantly see organisational and departmental restructuring which affects the way we work. We see corporate reengineering exercise where people get axed. We see and hear things that threaten our livelihood and we feel our supervisors are always picking on us. We suspect and know there are spies for management who are our peers, always lurking around our backs, ready to stab on us at every opportunity.

One of the many ways our management keeps an eye on us is through spies tapping on the grapevines. Grapevines are informal gatherings by colleagues to discuss anything in general, and in general, workers talk about their bosses, their unhappiness at work and the likes. A manager can either directly plant a spy in grapevines or indirectly insinuate to get his or her staff, especially secretaries, to convey messages. For example, the manager can unofficially leak news about possible retrenchment to secretaries who unknowingly hint about it at these informal gatherings, thus motivating staff to work harder, or make them demoralised and then play saviour to win support from staff.

Such are the politics working in a corporate world and these by no means are totally the fault of management. The truth is, managers are trained by education to do such things. Attend any business management study and you will find all these written in the textbooks.

Another technique frequently used by management is the reinforcement theory, which takes the view that workers are by nature lazy and must be scrutinized or manipulated constantly in order to yield results expected by management. In short, it means behaviour modification. The management may introduce a consequence or change the environment in order to increase or maintain frequency of staff participation. These may include punishment, controlled rewards, psychological segregation, or other methods. For examples, the threat or rumours of possible retrenchments, punishment of a staff to set an example, and the cutting of bonuses. By using such shock or depravity tactics, staff will then modify their behaviours and change attitudes toward work.

Some of us who are reading this article may be supervisors, managers, or bosses in our own companies. As people in a position to determine the behaviours of others, we must constantly be reminded that not all techniques we learnt from books or education are in real life practical. We ought to treat staff as human beings and hence we must use our own brains to decide what is best and not rely on learnt knowledge. Instead of manipulating, we may wish to consider how to increase staff's job satisfaction so that they may willingly sacrifice their time and efforts to go an extra mile.

To workers who are suffering at the hands of the management, know that all these exploitations are not necessary intentional on the part of the supervisors or managers. All these techniques used by them are not new and have been taught in academic schools. It is a flaw of the education system that makes them what they are. If we can make them see their wrongs and 'educate' them through staff consensus and feedback, or even through unions, let us try to make it work. However, if such methods don't work, then use the techniques they use on us to reverse the role, and hopefully in this way get attention from them by getting our message across.