You give a lot to your employer. After all, it’s your sweat, energy, and knowledge put to work that power the company you work for! But I’m curious...in your time of need, will your employer return the love?
Picture this—You just accepted the job offer. The boss extends their hand and says to you: “We’re so glad you’re a part of our family.”
At first, a feeling of assurance washes over you, assurance that this job and this boss truly have your best interests at heart. You are confident that if you are loyal to the company, the company will be loyal to you. When your kids are sick and you need to leave work, when the bus is late or your car breaks down, you expect your boss to understand. When life throws its unpredictable curveballs, you trust that the company will be there to help in times of trouble and that your pay and benefits will continue to meet your needs and those of your loved ones.
But you begin to question your employer’s commitment to you as time passes and the boss doesn’t treat you in ways that are exactly...neighborly. When you inquire about the raise you were promised to receive after three months on the job and the response you get is, “Time’s are tough.” Or how about when your co-worker quits and you are asked to pick up the hours – of course you do it – who would let down the family? Or perhaps, your kid eats a bunch of crayons and is rushed to the emergency room, but the coded and perplexing details hidden in your healthcare plan leave massive payments hanging over your head. You begin to ask yourself, If my employer is really my family, why do they make my life so difficult?
And if our employer is not as faithful to us as we are to them, who can we depend on at our places of work?
And Who is My Neighbor?
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? – Luke 10:36
The lawyer wanted to know how to achieve eternal life and Jesus gave him the answer: “love God and love your neighbor.”
Well that’s all well and good, but the lawyer wants specifics: “And who is my neighbor?” he asks.
To help his students understand how one can know who their neighbor is, Jesus tells a parable. It’s a story about a man who, while journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, is attacked by robbers. The bandits leave him for dead – broken, penniless, and naked.
As he’s lying there on the roadside, a priest happens to pass by...and walks to the other side of the road to avoid him. Next, a Levite, a respected member of the temple establishment, passes by as well – same story – he crosses to the other side. Finally, a third figure passes by, a Samaritan, who sees the man on the roadside and, as Jesus tells us, is “moved with pity.”
Now wait just one minute...Samaritans and Jews have a history of tension rooted in their religious and cultural differences. Surely, those who first heard this gospel story would assume the Samaritan an unlikely neighbor. But the power of this parable is that it’s the Samaritan who bandages the injured man’s wounds, takes him to safety, and uses the money from his own pocket to ensure his healing.
So, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Jesus asks the lawyer. The answer is clear. The neighbor was the one who pulled the man out of the ditch.
One would expect the priest or the Levite to be the hero of the story but, for whatever reason, neither stopped to offer aid. Instead, solidarity came from an unlikely ally who crossed deep lines of cultural difference to share the weight of suffering.
Let’s not overthink it – How do we know who is truly our neighbor?
They’re the ones who help us out of the ditch.
We Only Have Each Other
You and I spend so much of our time, skill, creative energy, and even our very bodies to make a profit for the companies that employ us. However, when the going gets tough, we find that the company doesn’t love us back. So maybe it’s time we reconsider who really is our neighbor.
Layoffs, cuts to health insurance, stagnating wages, precarious working conditions – these serve as reminders that our loyalty to the company doesn’t mean much after all. Ultimately, our capitalist employers are bound to pursue profit above all else. When the well-being of workers gets in the way of profits, we as workers are expendable. Like the man who fell into the hands of robbers, we’ll find that those who said they’d have our back will leave us for dead.
No, it isn’t simply that employers are greedy or hate their employees; the truth is that capitalism creates this tension between employers and workers.
But the good news is that we have many potential neighbors at work.
Like the man who fell into the hands of robbers, our true neighbors may be those we’ve been taught to disregard or even outright distain. Differences along lines of race, gender, sexuality, and nationality may seem to be barriers for community, but when we realize that our co-workers are the ones we can count on, everything can change.
We know that the boss isn’t going to pick us up when the bills stack up, the car breaks down, or a crisis strikes. Our co-workers, however – those who understand that we are in the same boat – have the potential to be our true neighbors and can share the weight of life under the rule of capital…
...And when we decide, collectively, that we’ve had enough, that we will no longer exist as mere tools for employers’ profits, the struggle for our liberation can begin as we unite with our co-workers.
This week as you return to the office, kitchen, classroom, or shop floor, be sure to look around and notice all of your neighbors. Maybe the boss was right in welcoming you to the family after all.
Questions for reflections
Was there a moment when you realized that the boss didn’t have your back? How did you know?
What keeps workers so divided? In your place of work and workplaces in general?
If you could join with your co-workers and change one thing about your work situation, what would it be?
What concrete steps can you take to get to know your neighbors?