Office Life and God's Call

I work in an office. No, not one with stifling cubicles that make employees feel devastatingly small and isolated. My office environment is open, loud, boisterous, and very often I have to either dodge a stress ball whizzing by my face, or pick up one that came to rest at my feet and wing it back to the guy who threw a wild curve ball. My manager likes to sneak up behind me when I'm focused and shout "HEY!" right next to my face, causing me to spasm so violently that I nearly smash my head into the keyboard.

Then there is the gong.

Yes.

The gong.

It looks exactly like this.

I sit 10 feet away from a large, Imperial China style gong that gets BANGED whenever a salesman lands a new customer. Sometimes it happens early in the morning, which makes me nearly spill my (inevitably) nasty coffee. Or it will happen during the height of activity in the day, ALWAYS when I'm talking on the phone, which leads to a long explanation of why we have something so odd as a gong in our office.

On top of all of this, we consistently have happy hours after work in which I drink beer far faster than is prudent (if it weren't free, I wouldn't drink it so fast! See how I'M the victim here?). Considering the environment of most others who work in office space, I have it pretty darn good. Yet I've found that the environment that I work in only takes me so far in being happy with the job I have. In the three months that I have worked there, I already know that it isn't a long term fit for me. That says something to me about the nature of work and what God calls us to.

I work in what could be argued as one of the best environments of the corporate world (barring examples like Google, Linkedin, or Pinterest offices). Yet despite this, I don't like my job. It's draining, soulless, and just...blech. I've tried to find meaning in it, and I have found meaning to some degree. But that personal meaning isn't the bottom line for this company. What bothers me the most about this job is that its bottom line is....wait for it!

Two words: Cash. Flow.

That isn't any surprise right? But it seems even more true at my company. That's what most people working here seem to be all about. I hire for the sales role in this business, and my biggest selling point is the earning potential. We want money-hungry people. Our ideal candidate is a fresh college graduate, one who worked through college, played sports, and who has an insatiable appetite for a six-figure income. My job is to recruit an army of lil' hedonists!

Yay hedonists!!!!

That makes me feel sick to my stomach.

For some, their motivation for a 100K salary is good: they want a house, a family, a wife who can stay at home.

For others, their motivation is: uhhhh...I want beer money.

But I'm not supposed to care what their motivation is. I'm just supposed to get a hire. Because more hires equals more money for this company. And that's the bottom line.

God isn't calling us to a job where the end all-be all is money. Maybe that's why the sales role at this company has a big, FAT turnover rate. God calls us to work that we can find personally meaningful while making enough to live comfortably. Even in my non-sales role, money is king. So therefore I feel very much like a slave here, even though I get free beer at least twice a month.

So I pray and hurt for those people who don't care where they work so long as they are making a lot of money. I've talked to hundreds of them, and they don't sound very happy. I feel like there is so much more to life than that. God offers something much better, we just have to find where it is for us. Oh! And if anyone has suggestions for non-corporate-oh-my-gosh-my-life-is-all-about-makin'-monayyyyy jobs, let me know!