“Take This Job and Love It!”
Hillcrest Church Office
September 24, 2003
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Here is this week’s WINNING WAYS . . . .
“Take This Job and Love It!”
by Tom Goodman
I read about a boss who believed that the best way to keep employees locked to their desk was to . . . well . . . lock employees to their desk!
In July 1995, Bobby Northington had begun his third day as a temporary production worker at Mid-South Pick-N-Pack in Nashville, Tenn. In his lawsuit against the company, the 29-year-old claimed he walked 10 feet from his workbench
to offer a co-worker a piece of chewing gum and, after returning to his desk, his supervisor appeared with a chain and padlock. She told Northington to put his right leg against the table leg and then she wrapped the chain tightly around his
leg and locked it. A half-hour later her own boss walked by and laughed at the chain, saying it looked like they’d finally be able to get some work out of the young man.
Over an hour passed before the supervisor unlocked the chain from the leg of her humiliated employee.
If you’re an employee, maybe you can identify with Northington. I doubt you’ve ever been chained to your station, but work can seem like bondage at times. I saw a sign over one employee’s desk that said, “You can’t fire me; slaves have to
be sold!”
Then again, if you’re a supervisor, maybe you can identify with Northington’s boss! I’ve supervised a few people who found all kinds of excuses to dodge work. Maybe Northington’s boss had had enough?
Employees and employers can cooperate together to make a better work environment. This Sunday we’re going to study the Bible’s sound guidance on this issue. We’ll continue our series called “On-Purpose Living” with a message called “The
On-Purpose Job.”
See you at 8:30 or 10:45!
– Tom
The story of the chained employee appeared in the Wall Street Journal, April 2, 1996.
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