As I completed the reading in an HR class, I couldn’t help but think of another HR event from the Bible:
A few thousand years ago, the Hebrews were living in Egypt. Their population grew steadily, until it became a concern of the Pharaoh. Scared of an uprising or revolt, Pharaoh decided that he and his leadership team needed to deal shrewdly with the Hebrews. He decided to put a forced labor policy in place and make the Hebrews build some cities for him. But the more he oppressed them, the more they grew. So Pharaoh developed a strategy. He decided to make the labor even harsher. More bricks, less time off, fewer resources to do the job, lower wages, more production. Of course, his production goals were not met and the workers/slaves were not satisfied. He called them lazy. They called out to God.
In the end, his plan backfired. The Lord became the Hebrews’ union representative (along with Moses) and delivered them from the oppressive management.
A great lesson for three groups: government, management and employees.
- Government: implementing forced labor and slavery is not a good moral choice.
- Management: treat your employees with respect and have fair expectations or it will come back to bite you.
- Employees: keep doing your work faithfully–and if management treats you unfairly, you know where to turn.
Omer Redden 