My company needs to make some “efficiency savings”. This is management speak for asking volunteers to sign up for a redundancy package. Those who are left behind will be expected to pick up the work of those who have left. 100% of the work carried out by the remaining 80% looks like an efficiency saving if you are a counter of beans.
I believe there is a training event planned where you play with Lego bricks and use post it notes to come up with ways to work harder.
The problem is that this is not the first round of efficiency savings, so in practice projects will take longer to complete and there will be more problems because of the corners that have been cut.
So with just a couple of years left before I would expect to retire, motivated by the prospect of more work, Lego bricks and post it notes, I have been seriously considering whether I should also volunteer to leave. This leads to the question – what would I do if I was made redundant?
I have seen a number of people who have been made redundant or retired early, who have chosen to throw themselves into church work.
At long last they have the time to be able to really serve the Lord, to learn Greek and Hebrew and write some deep and well-structured sermons. Many churches will be really grateful for any and all help that they can get, but it may be they do not really need a senior executive or telesales person but someone who can stack the chairs and play with the toddlers.
40+ years of work should mean you leave with useful skills and experience, it would be a shame to waste them, but are they ones that the church needs?
Many years ago I learned some key things:
- There is no difference between secular and Christian work – all work should be done as for the lord.
- Prayer works in business as well as on Sundays.
- For Christians to make a difference we should get out of our churches and alongside those who are not yet Christians.
- Our value to God is not based on what we do.
- Sometimes God may ask us to do nothing.
- Sometimes God may ask us to do something outside our comfort zone.
Perhaps when we stop paid work we should look a bit wider than the church, as there are many good charities (Christian and non-Christian) that could really use some help. I have come to the realisation that I should stay at work a little longer, perhaps to encourage and support my colleagues who are finding it 20% harder.
Who knows, when I do leave work, being able to play with Lego bricks could be a skill church could actually need.
