April 2003

ARTICLE TOOLS

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I have labored in several different Christian workplaces—all of them good. At one of those companies, the employees became aware that a colleague's husband was suffering from a degenerative disease. The couple lived in a small walk-up apartment without laundry facilities. In the winter, she had to negotiate icy steps in order to do the extra washing that came with caring for a bedridden spouse. Some blessed soul began covert fundraising and before long the employees had chipped in enough to give her a washer and a dryer for Christmas.

Such unselfishness isn't listed as a benefit in the employee handbooks of Christian companies. But the sense of mission and community created at such companies can release such generosity. At a Christian company where I used to work, we would frequently find the company's top executive eating in the employee lunchroom and wiping off the counters. He was a model of humility, and it was reflected in the way others behaved.

A colleague left that company to earn a higher salary at a now infamous accounting firm. On his first day, he brought his brown bag to the employee lunchroom, prepared to enjoy the company of his fellow workers. After lunch someone took him aside and said that workers of his level did not eat in the company lunchroom if they wanted to advance. His adviser suggested some "appropriate" restaurants where he should be seen having lunch.

My good experiences made me curious about the values and the relationships at Christian companies more broadly. So when Helen Lee approached CT about studying the Best Christian Places to Work, I was eager to see if my experience was replicated elsewhere. Now the results are in: There is indeed much to praise and much to imitate in the Christian companies ...