Employment | haRdLy NOrMal

Posts Tagged ‘employment’

Non-compete in ministry

Published by August 5th, 2008 in Change, Church, Leadership, Managment, My Big Mouth

First I have to come right out and say I only have myself to blame for being bit by a non- compete since I was the one who suggested to the church leadership were I was employed that it should be implemented.

I WAS WRONG!

If ministry is truly about building the Body of Christ it should not matter if an employee’s talents are used at the church down the road. A church leadership that implements a non-compete is 100% thinking about their own growth and not God’s people. It is a selfish action based on fear.

I have also seen church leadership carefully select who in the organization is asked to sign a non-compete agreement. If your co-workers are being asked to sign a non-compete and you are not asked it is an indication that leadership wants you to leave. This should be common sense. Leadership values the people it is concerned will leave and/or leave to help a nearby church grow and therefore requires a non-compete. One purposes of such an agreement is a scare tactic to get a valued employee to stick around. For those employees leadership does not value and actually wants to leave a non-compete may prolong their exit.

Employers rely on fear to get you to sign, and ignorance that you won’t check the laws in your state to see if a non-compete is enforceable. Some employers know, but don’t care, that their non-compete agreements are not enforceable. Each state has different labor laws and you need to do a little research before you sign anything! A non-compete is binding only if it’s reasonable in scope and necessary to protect the company’s interests. For example, it might be enforceable if it restricts you from working for a competitor for six months within a 25-mile radius, but not beyond that scope or if you can prove it will seriously impact your right to make a living. Remember – that state you live in wants you to be employed!

You should also be compensated for signing a non-compete. If you’re a new-hire at the time your employer asks you to sign, then employment alone might be compensation enough, at least for a court. But if you’ve already worked there for awhile and your employer doesn’t offer you an incentive to sign it, other than termination if you don’t, then a court might be on your side if you refused to sign and your employer retaliated.

The bottom line is this. Even though an employer gives a healthy Christmas bonus it still does not mean they don’t abuse employees with covert employment policies such as shunning. It is not right for any company or organization to abuse their workers and the church must elevate above all this mess and lead by example. This week I had several conversations with people who were deeply hurt by the ministry they worked for. These people are not victims because they worked through the hurt and continue to work for God. Telling the truth does not make you a victim, staying down does and without the truth people will continue to abuse people.

A preacher will stand behind the pulpit and claim we are not of the world, yet have their HR department implement a non-compete agreement. Please take a long hard honest look at yourself. Are the actions you are taking today motivated to help people, truly help ALL people, or just to keep you in control of the kingdom you created?

Please forgive the duplicate but I felt the following statement needed to be repeated:

Don’t buy a house and I’m coming back strong!

Published by June 24th, 2008 in Just Me

3 Comments »

Today I was told that my house won’t appraise for much more then the balance of my loan. That means to sell the house and get this monkey off my back I have to come up with around $4K – that I don’t have.

It will probably take a few years to completely recover from living off my credit cards these last few months. My credit card debt increased by $15K. The cards are now maxed!

I was curious so I did the math today. I added up all the money that went into this house to buy it and then subtracted what I would have paid for rent and the amount of tax savings I received. Not taking into account the $4K I need to sell the house, or all the stuff I am selling on craigslist for pennies on the dollar, I am out $16K for the last two years.

In the Rich Dad Poor Dad materials it is stated that a house is a liability. Everyone around you is going to tell you that right now is the time to buy. DON’T DO IT! A house is a huge liability and it is not an asset! The employment culture of today is only secure to those who accept that it is unstable and plan for the next move. Don’t get me wrong. I step into each position believing it will last forever, but I won’t ever take a hit like I have here in STL ever again!

This has nothing to do with faith, words, positive thinking or giving. Last year alone I gave away 20% of my income. I believed for the best and fought hard spiritually and personally to make a horrible situation turn around, yet sometimes as the bumper sticker says “it” happens! No matter what you are taught God is not magic and there is no formula to be blessed and circumvent crisis.

When I moved to STL I had $6K in the bank. I had some credit card debt but I was actively chipping away at it. Now, things got so bad two months ago I applied for food stamps. Very humbling! Because I am single it was the only GR I could qualify for. I ended up taking a minimum wage job at Macy’s, yet, even though it hardly paid for the gas to drive there, it gave me something to do. Lord knows I aggressively sought employment and after this move I will take some time and blog about what I have learned. A blog is a good time capsule and the posts I made 6 months ago were just a little whacked. I now have a whole new understanding.

The good news is I am FINALLY seeing a change in the situation. This has been the longest ongoing crisis in my life. One hit after another. Most of the time the hits came when I was away from work which caused me to work more. I literally was in fear of what would happen when I take time off. It was insane. Of course, there are several more hurtles. Isn’t there always? The moving company attached a 19% fuel surcharge which eats my entire relocation budget. Now the gas and hotel I pay for. Again with money I don’t have. The house MUST sell. If it does not I am tanked!

Ok, why am I posting this? Because I am like in a crazy good mood. The house, the money, the stuff – I can always get that back. As I found out by accident the #1 search word that people type in and find hn.com is the word breathalyzer. They land on a post I wrote about the “capacity to be honest” which could not be more perfect. If a person is trying to figure out how to beat a drug test they are not being honest with themselves. Truthfully, the biggest problem I see with people is most of us don’t want to hear the real truth. But that is another post! The capacity to be honest post has even more significance. It was the first time I openly shared about AA and shortly after the church leadership chastised the 12 Steps four times in one meeting. That showed me that my blog was being read and that I could no longer be honest. And yes, it took away my passion for this blog. Repression can do that. Over the years I have seen church leadership be open to AA, and closed to AA. Usually the ones closed to AA have never been to a meeting so they have never shared the unconditional love. Let’s face it; church sometimes makes me want to drink. AA helps me stay sober. There is also a saying. If you want to hear about God go listen to a preacher. If you want to see God in action go to AA and watch one drunk helping another stay clean.

Also, one thing I noticed up unto that point. The more real I got, the more personal I became, the more vulnerable I was, the more you responded. For many of the posts when I started to be vulnerable, capacity to be honest included, I received emails from strangers thanking me. So what’s my point already? Right now I would bet there are lots of people out of work and losing their house. I just felt that if I share about it, the real truth of the situation, that someone out there could relate and maybe, just maybe they would find some hope in this post. Because there is one thing I can guarantee you. even though the challenges of the last 18 months have been exceptionally taxing and came close to destroying me – I am not only going to survive this – I am coming back swinging.

Chase me!