How to deal with work
When people don’t like you
Hi overcomer,
I don’t like confrontation.
And avoid it if possible.
Yet.
If work colleagues treat you badly.
And keep doing so…
Sooner or later pushback is your only option. You have no choice except—step up and deal with it.
If not, work starts quickly unravelling into one long, grey tunnel of misery.
Thankfully,
When I used to work for others here’s what turned things around for me. And did it quickly too.
For instance…
One time I had a factory job working an assembly line making circuit boards for computers.
Each line had its team. And I was part of the HP Laptop team…
Er, kind of.
Because even though we were a team.
Nobody spoke to me.
In fact they actively, aggressively shunned me.
Like this…
When our line would go to the canteen, each team would sit together around big circular tables for food and coffee during breaks etc.
However,
Because I was at the very end of the line and would arrive last (with a friendly “Hi!” and cheery smile),
To sit down with the rest of my team…
No one would acknowledge, answer or even look at me!
In fact.
As soon as I showed up,
The whole team, en masse… would just get up and leave.
Either to go ‘outside’ or to sit down on another table just two feet away!
Which left me sat there like a lemon. Totally on my own.
And they did this every, single. Time.
It was super embarrassing because all the other teams in the canteen could see I was the ‘reject.’
“Wow! What’s with this guy. Is he a leper?”
Anyway,
I knew why these people were rejecting me though.
Because I was different.
Specifically,
Despite being a Scot, I have a very English accent…
And this was a fiercely Scottish workforce.
The factory also in a region seething with notoriously anti-english sentiment.
So.
It was grim hauling myself off to work with such a hostile environment waiting for me.
Shifts were ten hours long too.
Plus we were often pressured to do back to back shifts on overtime. Which all meant you’d end up working twenty hours straight.
Grim indeed when no one likes you.
Anyhow,
I realised I needed a solution before I went nuts.
So here’s what I did…
Standing up in one spot for ten straight hours, placing circuit boards into machine cutters, closing the lids, removing them and placing them on a conveyer belt was brain sapping monotony.
Plus It was so noisy you couldn’t speak to anyone else on your line either (not that anyone wanted me to of course).
Which all meant I had only one option left.
For example if on a night shift,
I just had to…
PRAY FOR TEN HOURS ALL NIGHT.
Hmmm…
“Great LORD. That sounds exciting… sigh.
Can’t you just give me a better job. Get me out of here!”
However,
I began to glimpse there was a different way to pray, so I set to it…
And.
Began praying every single shift NON-STOP the whole way through.
Day or night. Back to back shifts too. The lot.
Praying non stop.
Though to begin with…
My team ‘mates’ still avoided me like the plague.
Their passive aggression ruling the canteen.
No matter. I was determined to pray.
And note this overcomer,
Even while they were sniggering behind my back…
IN MY SPIRIT…
I began sensing I was getting a stronger each day praying like this.
The night shifts I recall were especially powerful.
And weirdly,
By this stage I actually started looking forward to all shifts.
I began enjoying my work. This weird game that was playing out I knew would end well in my favour.
Then one lunch break…
I sat down with the team as usual (ready to get rejected all over again)…
When what do you know…
Halleluyah!
Yippee, they all stayed seated with me :)
So I opened my copy of the Times newspaper (All news was print only back then)… ate my eggs and scanned the headlines…
Then ever so casually leaning over to the line leader sitting next to me and pointing to a headline on International affairs I said…
“What do you think about this then? And by the way, guess what all this stuff really means?
He looked where I was pointing to and joy of joys…
He dang well answered me!
Next thing I knew we were in full blown conversation.
Heart to heart. Man to man.
But one with a big twist.
Suddenly, this was deep talk.
We were…
Talking all about the Mark of the Beast.
The End of the World. Life and death. Heaven and hell!
And our whole team was riveted by what they were hearing.
The Holy Spirit had every ear eager for more.
Better still… most of them joined our conversation too!
And from then on, everything changed at work.
Overnight every one of those rascals on our line couldn’t have been nicer to me.
Anything I wanted I got.
The bosses helped train me up on the line computers. That way our line didn’t have stop for ages for engineers anymore because soon I could fix anything on our line.
Instead, everyone came to me for help. Later the bosses wanted to promote me.
Plus,
My line came for more than just work help from me.
They came for prayer too.
For all sorts of things…
Health.
Family.
Career advice.
Girlfriend and boyfriend troubles.
Plus yes, quite a few asked me how to get to heaven ;)
And I told them Jesus is the way.
Praise GOD!
When finally it came time for me to leave that Scottish factory for a better job, not just our entire team but loads of others in the factory came outside and sent me off with big hugs and real genuine affection.
Why?
They loved me.
And I them. And they knew it.
(English accent or not ;)
So,
Was there a special prayer that faced down the wall of racism. Evil bigotry and demonic resistance that tried to drive me out of that opportunity?
Yes. Absolutely.
What was it?
Total gobbedly gook.
I’ve no idea what it meant because it was an heavenly language.*
All I knew was I was building my faith up.
Stronger and stronger.
Shift by shift.
Week by week.
Until gloriously!
The LORD shattered the enemies hold over the entire team.
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit”
Jude 1: 20 ESV
“For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 14:2 ESV
And beloved.
He will do it for you.
So.
To wrap this up, let me answer a question which I am asked fairly often.
What about if you can’t pray in tongues?
After all,
The Apostle Paul said not everyone prays in tongues didn’t he? (1 Corinthians 12: 30)
Well,
If that’s you.
Here’s your answer.
Say thank you.*
I say so for another time a boss began to openly criticise me to the the higher ups in management meetings.
He seemed dead set on goading me into retaliating (I suspect so I would then end up getting sacked or something).
So I did.
I retaliated with a secret weapon—Yet it was one he didn’t expect.
One meeting in front of everyone else, he went for the jugular and I couldn’t stand it any longer.
So I replied to him like this (in complete sincerity btw)…
“Thanks Stewart for flagging that up. Actually I may well have dropped the ball there so I appreciate you telling me.
I really need all the help I can get because I’m only just learning the ropes.
I will do my best to change and do a better job in future.
Thanks again.”
Well.
This (sincere) reply seemed to throw him quite a loop. He blinked and didn’t quite know what to say.
Plus because the way he’d spoken about me was quite nasty it made me seem very reasonable and affable to the rest of management.
Anyway,
Over the next three months I prayed for this boss a lot but always, always, always like this…
“LORD, thank you for Stewart. I really appreciate you placing him above me in management. So it’s obvious I need to learn something in this Jesus. Help me not to miss what you are teaching me here.
Anyway LORD, he is struggling in XYZ just now and he obviously has a problem with me.
Help me to change. Help me also to help him. Help me to be part of the answer he needs not part of the problem he feels he needs to remove.
In the Name of Jesus bless him too LORD. No matter what he is facing at work or at home, please help him come out on top LORD!
Amen!”
Well.
A funny thing happened.
I actually began to like him the more I prayed for him. The more my thoughts warmed to him. Before I knew it his verbal attacks stopped too.
And he became a great colleague.
Then…
Flip forward to one day at our Church five years later.
I was desperate.
By this point I was working for myself, yet down to my last few hundred pounds. And I needed an extra one thousand pounds within a few days to make end of month payments.
I’d been praying in faith,
Yet a couple who’d previously said they’d like to help financially changed their minds at the last minute and I was stuck.
Oops!
“Now what LORD!”
Just then that Sunday morning who should come out of the meeting but this very chap, Stewart.
And asked me how things were.
Next he quietly asked me how business was to which I replied…
“Not so great but I’m sure everything will work out.
Thanks for asking.”
He pressed me further…
“Do you need money Dave?”
Me flustered…
“Er, yes”
He asked…
“How much do you need?”
“A grand.”
I replied and that was that…
Two minutes later he was stuffing a cheque for one thousand pounds into my hands.
Cool eh :)
“If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”
James 216 NIV
So now let’s rush to the moral of the story.
Which is, as always overcomer!
P.I.T*
And if you wish to be truly successful always, ALWAYS.
ALWAYS.
Say THANK YOU to GOD for EVERYONE.
No matter how gruff or nasty the LORD disguises and sends them to you as.
Who knows if they are not secretly your banker ;)
Bless you,
Dave.
PS* This scripture really sums up everything above…
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
*P.I.T.
Is of course,
Pray. In. Tongues.
Saint :)
What else did you think it was?
*This brother and his wife ended up being so lovely to us for years.
He is in heaven now.
Excellent essay, how God comes through for us. Thanks for sharing.