Why You Should Want A Promotion

My first high school job was delivering pizza for Dominos. I wanted a little extra money and I enjoyed getting out of the house on school nights. We’d usually start with four or five drivers each night, each taking a couple deliveries per run, and we were always crushing to make our thirty minute guarantee. It was an easy job, and we saw a few things knocking on strangers’ doors every night. All that said, I wasn’t a great employee. I just wanted to get back home with a few dollars in my pocket.

That changed sometime in my second year when the manager asked me to train a new driver. Again, I wasn’t a good driver, but my manager was desperate enough to try to scrape whatever value he could out of me. It didn’t go well. I got a ticket for backing across three lanes of traffic and I had to ask my trainee to keep it between us. But again, something changed. It wasn’t that I wanted to work longer hours but I enjoyed making a contribution to the team, and there was something about representing our little storefront just a little better that felt good. I don’t remember feeling flattered. Instead I felt like I had agency, or impact, even on a junior Dominos driver scale, and that felt like something that I was supposed to pursue. 

I actually didn’t pursue anything; in fact, I quit a few weeks later, because these were my pre-Christian days and I was kind of a punk. I wasn’t very reflective in High School, but I still remember the feeling of having earned a wisp of trust, however poorly placed. 

I’m sometimes asked about how someone should respond in a difficult working environment, and more times than not, my answer is to earn a promotion, or take the next step toward more responsibility, because the purpose of work is more than the work itself. 

Colossians 4 tells us to “walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the time.”  The word “time” can also refer to a season or an opportunity and the idea is that during this season, in this position, look for chances to have the most impact in the lives of the people around you. Don’t miss the opportunities and relationships (even the tough ones) that you have now, because right now is the last chance you will have them. And I think the wisest way to do that is to be so great at what you do so that you bless everyone around you, and that’s what it takes to earn a promotion. 

The church is supposed to have an impact on the world, and that includes me and you.  Put another way, every one of us should pursue a promotion at work because that is usually a step-by-step recipe for “walking in wisdom toward outsiders.”

So what should you do right now?

1. List two things you can do to be ready for the next step at work. Now email these to your work address so that you see them Monday morning.

2. Ask yourself how you can use wisdom to be a blessing to your supervisor. Now email this too.