Every month the Young Catholic Professionals Group has a speaker event. This month they had a Deacon come and speak that has worked for Publix Corporate (our local grocery chain here in the south) for over 15 years.
He had a lot of great insight that I am also sharing here for those of us that are Catholic but also work in secular fields.
I could really relate to him on this end. My husband and I work for a local restaurant in our tourist town. I am the bookkeeper but my office is right off the kitchen so the things I hear are CRAZY! Even the people my husband has to deal with and peoples “it’s all about me” attitudes.
You have to do what you are able to do. ~ We all have dreams which are great but many of them are unrealistic…things we don’t want to hear but it’s reality.
We have to live out our faith in subtle ways out in our secular jobs. We should walk and talk WITH people not TO people. ~ In General I think that is a good management style. I had a teacher he always made sure he knew how to do the job his employees were doing not just talk down to them and tell people what to do.
And related Our faith gives us compassion when dealing with difficult situations. I think this is really true. Many times at work because of my faith I feel like harder situations are easier to deal with.
To be who you are you BRING VALUE to the table. And make yourself marketable! That’s what employers look for.
We have to be able to forgive those we work with because the corporate ladder can be ugly. (Ain’t that the truth!)
This was one of my favourite things he mentioned. He told us to carry a rosary when taking walks on our breaks or around the office. Or better yet he said to just move it from one pocket to another to get people to notice and pay attention to your faith in subtle ways.
WORK-LIFE-CHURCH-BALANCE is VERY HARD to manage. ~ That is probably the understatement of the year. We want to help everyone but we can’t do it all.
We have the opportunity to be faithful!
Nurture and build to expand your faith will even help you in the workplace.
I totally agree with this. Going to talks, bible studies, retreats and mass may not seem like it will help your work life or professional life. Which makes sense they won’t get you Continuing Ed or Training but by helping your spirituality can help your person as a whole.
But on the flipside, I have often taken youth ministry and catechist training classes that are faith focused but a lot of the information was helpful to my regular 9-5 job.
Be who God wants you to be! Listen to God! Have meaning in all you do.
It was a great talk with a lot of great nuggets. I hope you get something out of it. How do you handle being Catholic in a secular environment or workplace? I find it can be really hard at times and make me seem weird but I do find it makes me more compassionate at times.