Blake felt like a spider that had just been stomped upon. This was a Monday of Mondays. He woke, full of trepidation about his day. While he had hoped for amazing insights, hope or an escape in his morning prayer time all he received was a tiny dose of peace, a tiny dose that quickly evaporated.
When he came out to his car, he found he had a flat tire, “Of all days to have a flat!” he thought as he worked frantically to put the spare tire on. The delay to his regular routine put him in much heavier traffic than he was accustomed. With every stop and delay, he could feel his fear growing.
He finally walked into work late, but found the place strangely deserted. He heard sounds coming from the meeting room and realized that Oliver must have called a company meeting first thing, on his first day. Blake attempted to slip in, but Oliver interrupted what he was telling the group to say, “You, there, coming in at 8:22 in the morning, did you enjoy your extra sleep? Come to my office as soon as we are done here, to discuss tardiness and what you missed.”
Then Oliver continued his dissertation of new rules. He did not want any cell phones in the building. When Scott objected saying that he had company email on his cell phone, Oliver asked and wrote down the Scott's name, then asked him if he had email on his desktop computer. When Scott said he did, then Oliver said Scott had email access while he was here, he didn't need a cell phone.
Oliver explained that the corporate computer use policy forbids the use of the company computers for non-business purposes. He was going to be having meetings with the IT staff about how to implement rigorous monitoring for non-business use. There will be no looking at Facebook, Internet shopping, checking out the sports scores or sending emails to all your friends. Employees should immediately contact (without using company computers or cell phones) anyone that sends them non-business emails and have them stop. While he would like to make an exception to allow the weak employees, that can't take it, to job hunt online, that would be inconsistent with the policy, so that is forbidden, too. Oliver explained that we are here to work and all these distractions have no place in the business environment. He explained to them that if they want non-business computer usage and cell phones in the workplace, there are plenty of other employers that allow it, however, in this office they are going to work.
He continued to explain how he was going to monitor each person's work. He had many years of experience in different roles of this company and he will share with each department the most effective ways to do their jobs. He explained that each person was in the habit of doing their jobs their own way, but he will standardize how everybody does their jobs for greater efficiency.
Ignoring the fact that this office was already one of the top-performing offices in the company, he told the assembled group that their level of performance has been lousy compared to what they can be doing. He wasn't here to make friends, he was here to yank this office up to a higher level of productivity.
Blake was shocked. After 5 years of working under good, kind and compassionate management, this jerk was totally unexpected. Blake was fuming.
As the meeting broke up with most people in stunned silence, Blake made his way to his office to check-in, before going to Oliver's office. He was half hoping for an emergency to crop up that would delay his meeting. He found no emergency waiting for him. What he did find was Elaine's face looking at him out of the photo on his desktop. He whispered to her, “What am I going to do?” Almost as if she answered him, he knew he should pray. He closed his door and knelt in front of his visitor chair. “Oh, Lord my God, I really, really need you! I don't know what this is all about, but I do know I'm going to need your strength. Please fill me with your Spirit, so Your peace will be restored in me. I want to do your will, but if there is any way that you could get me out of here, I would appreciate it. For the time I am here, I am going to need You in Your fullness. As I go to this meeting with Oliver, please fill me with your peace and control my emotions so I don't do anything I might regret. Oh, and Lord, please work in Oliver's life, so he might know you peace and compassion. Thank you for everything. Amen.”
With that he stood up and headed to Oliver's office. He poked his head in and said, “You wanted to see me?”
Oliver replied with, “Come in, take a seat. What is your name?”
As Blake walked into what had so recently been Jim's office he was astonished by the transformation. Where the office had been adorned with family pictures and memorabilia of a life well lived, it was now stark with the only adornment being signs extolling the virtues of hard work. He said, “I am Blake Jacobs.”
As Oliver flipped through pages in a legal pad covered in writing, he said, “I have no use for employees that can't be at work on time. Tardiness is usually a strong indicator of a lazy person. If a person can't get out of bed in the morning they generally can't motivate themselves to do good work either.”
Blake said, “I am always on time, I had a flat tire this morning.”
Oliver answered skeptically, “I'm sure you did. Some people always have an excuse.” He found what he was looking for in his notes. “Uh huh, that is why your name sounded familiar. You have missed almost 10 weeks this year.”
Blake was starting to get angry, “My wife died.”
Oliver responded, “I know your type,” in a mocking voice he said, “poor little Blake, he has had a hard time, you can't expect him to follow the rules.”
Blake wanted to scream at the guy. He was positively furious. Instead he shot up a quick prayer for God's help. A moment later he was able to say with a smile that was only slightly forced, “I guess it will be my job to demonstrate that your assumptions are totally false.”
He was rewarded by a brief flash of surprise across Oliver's face. In that moment, Blake realized that Oliver had been trying to make him lose control. When Blake maintained control, he had avoided being relegated to a lower status.
The two men eyed one another. Blake saw that Oliver was about 6 and a half feet tall with broad shoulders and blunt features. He had the build of an ex-athlete. His nose looked like it had been broken (Blake would love to hear that story!). Oliver continued to drill into him with his dark gray eyes. Blake continued to smile. Finally Oliver said, “You go right ahead, prove me wrong.”
From there, Oliver asked Blake to brief him on various accounts, as if that is why Blake was there. Blake knew, that with God's help, he had won a victory. While he wasn't happy with having this man as his boss, he realized that God would get him through. After he left Oliver's office he realized that his co-workers did not have the same benefit. As he walked back to his own office, he heard snippets of hushed conversation involving words and phrases that were not a part of the normal office conversation. People were angry to the point of threats. Blake felt compassion for his co-workers.
When Blake returned to his desk and began looking at emails, he felt his sense of peace evaporate. Every message that had its origins in the Branch Manager's office undermined his peace and replaced it with anger. He was having instant messaging disabled immediately, each employee needed to sign an acknowledgement that all email and phone calls are subject to monitoring, each employee was expected to submit a detailed record of how they spent their time, hour-by-hour through the work day and even more.
It was as if Oliver did not believe that they knew how to do their jobs and had to be shown, even though this location had been one of the most successful operations in the company. Oliver felt insulted. He could feel his grasp on the Lord slipping away as his anger swelled. He began praying, thinking in the back of his mind that Oliver might be really good for his prayer life.
CHAPTER 19
“Nor should we complain as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.”
1 Corinthians 10:10
Burst Into Flames: A Parable Page 24
