Will Faith At Work Be A Good Thing When Your Job Is On The Line?
Picture this: The economy has given the company you work at a pretty hard hit. Sales are down, competition is fierce, vendors and customers are all struggling and your job is on the line. You have 3 kids to feed, a mortgage, car payment and are still paying off the college debt you accumulated to get this amazing career started. Your boss is doing all they can to keep you employed.
The marketing team starts to get creative with their budget. Taking ads on billboards down, doing less TV time and working with a specialist in social media marketing and pay per click advertising, they come up with a way to reach more clients and cut their costs in half.
The design team is working closely with this social media specialist to create everything she asks for. 15 second videos, photos that are inviting, researching the CUSTOMER more than the competition are her prescriptions for success. Learning to talk back to customers on Facebook and Twitter, understanding real strategies for growth and she has a TON of backed up evidence that what she teaches, works.
Ads are tested for a few weeks, ROI is beginning to show up. She has been able to increase the click throughs and sales at a rate you never thought was possible. Being the design team manager, you are a little shocked and a little skeptical. But then you hear her say these very odd words,
“Now I want you to try something that isn’t really politically correct, but it has been proven to be very effective for the several multi million dollar companies I run and the nationwide brands I write for. Let’s have faith and pray.”
Something in side of you LIGHTS UP. You are disgusted. “What the hell is she talking about? Faith at work?! Isn’t there a freaking law about that kind of crap?” You flash back to when you lost your Dad to cancer and how as a young kid, you grew up without the support or protection of a father. “Where the heck was her little cosmic fairy then?” you think to yourself.
Today, you are a father. Fighting high blood pressure, diabetes and now, a possible job loss because the boss says profits are low and things are real tough. Then this pink haired crack pot comes in and while everything seemed fine with her ad strategies and the things she gave you to do in the design team, this idea of hers has really gone outside the boundaries of what should be acceptable in the workplace.
But the boss can’t hear your thoughts and you didn’t dare voice them out loud. The last time you blew a head gasket at a company meeting you felt like an idiot for a month, because everyone saw that ‘side of you’ that you do your best to leave at home. You know you have a problem with anger and are doing all you can to reel it in. The memories you have of your father were when he would scream and yell at your mom about not being able to work anymore hours, he was already exhausted. Flash backs…. They drive you crazy.
As this pink haired crazy woman prays over the ads, you start to feel like you’re going to throw up. Thank god she got to the ‘amen’ fast. Time to get back to real work and real business which depends on skill, strategy and using your brain.
Five days later the boss calls everyone in for a meeting. His face is pretty sober looking. “Looks like the ad changes aren’t working,” is your first thought. When push came to shove, you realize the chick has a reputation as of Forbes Top 20 Social Media Influencers and you even saw her track record with a lot of clients on her website. But you really never did ‘buy in’ on her prayer talk. Then it happened. The boss lays out the results on the conference table.
47% increase in click through
854% increase in engagement on the Facebook page
13,489 new followers in just 5 days
$ 145,897 in new profits
Everyone is shocked. Totally shocked.
He tells us what our next plan will be for another promotion in 4 days. We’re going to model the same path, up our budget on the pay per click ads, get more engagement going on social media and last but not least, we are going to have faith that people want our product and we are not going under. There will be no jobs lost at this company if I can help it! “If God can help us along the way, I am totally ok with asking for help.” your boss says at the end of the meeting.
So now it’s gotten real personal. Your ability to feed your children, provide for your family and make a good living is on the line. You don’t have all the answers and you honestly, don’t even want to look for them. But something very odd has just happened at your workplace. Faith is there. And for the very first time in a very long time, you’re beginning to ask yourself this question, “What do I believe?”
With love,
Sandi Krakowski
