Before I grew up and the world became so cold, calculating, and terribly cruel, I was able to blow through employment opportunities with the whim of a butterfly, flapping, skipping, and landing here, then there, but always landing somewhere. I must have had a dozen jobs before I turned 16! My first job lasted a little over three hours. I was a waitress at just over 14 and 1/2 years old, but when my dad found out I was carrying beer from the counter to the tables at a burger and pizza joint, he pulled the plug.
Maybe it was because I literally walked next door to my former place of employment and secured a job for myself within a day that I never really thought keeping one was a problem or even a necessity. It was the 70s; what can I say. Things were different then, and certainly so much easier for a kid to find work. Today, corporate America has to worry about taxes, laws, overworking a kid, etc., etc.; those were better days, and we had better music as well.
When I lost a job back then, I'd call my best friend up and say something like, "I'm free Friday to go to the game. My boss and I had a disagreement about what hours I should work, but apparently, he's agreed to let me go to the game with you. I'm not entirely sure if the word 'terminated' means I can return, but I assume he's happy for me." Once I remember saying, "It was a mutual agreement between myself and my employer that I should no longer work for the establishment." Even in my teens, I had a way with wording the not-so-good announcements.
Today, well, it's completely different. I was just terminated from a job I've held for a little over 2.5 years. I LOVED that job. It was the epitome of fun and easygoing, with very little pressure, and the only stress I had was deciding whether to tell the truth. In a position like that, I'm reminded why I worked for myself for as many years as I did. I won't lie to people. I won't lie for my boss. I won't lie for the company. I won't lie for the client. At the end of the day, I lie down - and when I lie down, I'm always (daily) reminded that I answer to Jesus, not to anyone else - EVER.
So, I refused to lie. I refused to cover up. I refused to turn my head and ignore what I found. I don't have to go into it. I don't have to be dramatic. Suffice it to say, Jesus will bless me for standing alone and telling the truth, even if others in positions over me choose not to. My grandpa used to tell me that standing with God, even if you seem to be standing alone with Him, is better than being one of millions who stand against Him. And though you may think I could have just shut my mouth and kept quiet, I couldn't. That would be an omission, and it really is the same as a commission when it comes to sin.
I am so very grateful for the lessons I learned at the company I worked for. I am equally grateful for some of the people I met, and the various scenarios I went through, dealt with, understood, and questioned. I am absolutely sure I was meant to be there for the time I was, and now I'm meant to be somewhere else. If nothing else, I'll have so much fodder for my new book! Corporate fraud, nepotism, tort crimes, felonies...they always make good reading when spun correctly. Though the book will be 100% fiction, there will be enough truth in it to allow those who have been through the employment wringer to relate -- some cave. Some do what they're told because to choose not to would mean personal sacrifice.
I look at it another way—I don't have the sin of the world on my back. I don't have holes in my ankles and wrists where I was hung for hours on a rugged beam, naked, beaten, spit upon, and worse. I'm good. When I start complaining about all the bad things people did to me, and how I deserve to really blast them with this or that—I'm calmed by the verses that say He will lift me up. He will cause my justice to shine like the noonday.
He will have His revenge - not me. Now, that doesn't mean I have to sit on my hands and do nothing. I'm not above flipping tables over and pulling out the whips! I'll just pray really hard before I hire the best attorney in the city to do what needs to be done both to my employer and the client that forced them to terminate me. As a whistleblower in 2026, I'm protected. If more people did what I'm about to do, we'd have less corruption in the companies that think they control us.
Photo Credit: Western CPE
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