Tag Archives: Calvin

day 2740: Retention

“Yes, each of you should remain as you were when God called you.”

As the New Year unfolds, it becomes a time when the recruiters and headhunters come calling. They know that annual bonuses will be soon paid and that we feel more free to look around for the next job.  And companies are in a new budget cycle and those open positions can now begin to be worked to be filled. Now, is the time of the year to double down on retention efforts.  Recognition, evaluations, promotions, etc. should be paid attention to before we find ourselves behind the curve and trying to play defense to another company’s offensive moves.

The idea of retention has Biblical implications.  Lake Lambert, in his book, “Spirituality, Inc.” writes about how Calvin in the book, “‘The Institutes’, considered a main problem of the Christian life to be human mobility and restlessness that would lead Christians to abandon God-given work because of the hardships associated with it. His fear was not that Christians would hold too fast to the status-quo, but rather they would be too likely to roam, looking for a nonexistent occupation without hardship.”  Both Calvin and Lambert nailed it.  We would be wise to question the source of that restlessness we feel and the messages we receive that we must always be moving to something else in our work.  God wants us to achieve and succeed but He also surely doesn’t want us obsessed and driven by our next job move.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 7:20 (New Living Translation)