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June 3, 2011

Working for the (Son of) Man

What a theology of work might look like for female professionals, who tend to downplay their success.

Alicia Cohn

“You’re not in competition with other women. You’re in competition with everyone." So goes Tina Fey's advice in her new book, Bossypants, to young women in the workplace.

Fey’s advice couldn’t be more true. Every day seems to bring more news of unemployment and low job creation in the United States. Although the so-called “man-cession” (more men being laid off than women) began to reverse in 2010, women are not catching up to men in the slow return to the workforce. Further, reports the National Association of Colleges and Employers, women who do manage to find work are paid 17 percent less than new male workers, despite the fact that they are just as likely to be hired.

Meanwhile, we are in the middle of college graduation season, when some 3 million young people are trying to enter a workforce with already four workers for every job opening. College-educated workers who remain unemployed face what is the longest unemployment duration in history, and may have to settle for work that did not require a college degree (known as “mal-employment”), thus having a trickle-down impact on those with less education.

Further, according to Harris Interactive, 59 percent of parents provide financial support to their adult children who are no longer in school. And an estimated 85 percent of new graduates are moving back in with their parents, at least partly to save money. As it happens, I fit all of these statistics.

Conditions are difficult all around, and the numbers seem designed to make us all feel less valuable in our respective workplaces. But according to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, women tend to feel less valuable in their workplaces, anyway.

“We will never close the achievement gap until we close the ambition gap,” Sandberg told the graduating class at Barnard College this year. She said,

Studies also show that compared to men, women underestimate their performance. . . . [I]f you ask men why they succeeded, men attribute that success to themselves; and women, they attribute it to other factors like working harder, help from others. Ask a woman why she did well on something, and she’ll say, “I got lucky. All of these great people helped me. I worked really hard.” Ask a man and he’ll say or think, “What a dumb question. I’m awesome.”

Sandberg concludes that in a world full of “awesome” men, “believing in yourself is the first necessary step to coming even close to achieving your potential.”

While Sandberg makes some valid points in her speech, her solution seems to add a lot of pressure. After all, where does believing in ourselves come from in the first place? And where do we turn when our confidence takes a hit?

Judging from statistics, most American workers are either hunting for a first job, trying to find a new one, or nervous about losing the one they have. And all of these conditions are stressful. My response to that kind of stress is to try improve at whatever I’m doing. If I’m working, I want to be the perfect employee. The mantra most college students learn is: Be eager to work and eager to please. But those goals can come with specific perils, such as compromising priorities (why be available for volunteer work when it might mean losing this job?), censoring statements of faith or anything "churchy," and compartmentalizing in order to convey a strict professionalism (no Tina Fey-style goofiness or black fingernail polish).

So as a solution, the survival method of striving for perfect sounds about as stressful as worrying about having a job, right? All of this stress leaks out into the rest of our lives. And it can become overwhelming - some surveys suggest women stress more than men when work and home life overlap.

There are plenty of Scriptures (2 Thessalonians 3:10, Ephesians 4:28, Proverbs 14:23) that indicate that Christians should be working hard at something. The shift in perspective - and the real stress relief - requires focusing on why we work: Not simply to make money and have a “function,” but to glorify God and fulfill his call on our lives. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters" (Col. 3:23). As Christians we are allowed to dedicate our work - at home or office, behind a coffee bar or a desk, during the week or overtime - to God.

Sandberg asked, “What about the rat race in the first place? Is it worthwhile? Or are you just buying into someone else’s definition of success? Only you can decide that, and you’ll have to decide it over and over and over.”

I’d need to talk myself into feeling awesome every day if that’s how I viewed my job. But Ecclesiastes calls that kind of work meaningless, “like chasing the wind.” There must be another way.

Working for God means stability: never sending out a resume with crossed fingers or bluffing through an interview because I never really change employers. It means speaking up in meetings and working harder every day, not because I am constantly reminding myself I’m awesome, but because I know how awesome God is. That’s a confidence that comes from knowing hard work is accepted as my reasonable service.

God asks us to run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Heb. 12:1). The running is its own reward. And if at times my race seems to run parallel to the endless rat race, I remind myself that even if I can’t see it, God has assured us a glorious finish line.

Posted by Katelyn Beaty on June 3, 2011 8:51 AM

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