theoffice.jpgTechnology is moving us all faster and faster into a new world. We can now get our job done quicker, more efficiently, and with greater ease. But according to Mark Saltzman, it doesn’t have to work in only that direction. Saltzman writes:

“Instead of being a slave to technology, you can master it, you can make it look like you are working when and where you are not.”

Saltzman is 35 and is the author of the White Collar Slackers Handbook. The work is a how-to textbook for deceiving colleagues through the use of computer manipulations. So now one can check e-mail at work, make phone calls, and basically slack off on the job and never get caught, or so they claim.

Now I am a fan of shows like The Office, but let’s be honest: if every company ran things the way the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin did we’d have real problems in the work force. Or perhaps The Office represents the modern work place today? Perhaps Office Space is a slightly exaggerated picture of what the working world is really like, and what the average worker thinks like. With this new technology we can’t know for sure. Whatever happened to integrity, honesty, and a good work ethic?

This is just further evidence that suggests all men everywhere think they deserve a little break. We are such selfish, foolish, and victimized people. How often do we shirk responsibilities and “stretch the truth” for our own sakes and own comforts! But Christians must rise above this type of dishonesty in the work force. We are to do our jobs and work for our employers as though it were “unto the Lord”! For we are indeed commanded to represent Christ everywhere, even the office, and to do all things “for the Glory of God”.

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Dave Dunham

3 Comments

  1. I dunno. The people at my office work like dogs. We are wired to the eyeballs, omni-tethered to the office and clients by computers, home networks, blackberries and cell phones.

    When I see someone on my staff taking a moment to reply to an IM from a friend, it seems very legitimate to me — a small opportunity to actually participate in the non-work community.

    I actually think shows like the Office and films like Office Space represent a way of rebelling in our imaginations against the very real imperatives that bear down on us in the wired workplace to basically work all the time.

    I left my office at 8 p.m. last night to go to House Church, after having spent about three hours trying to solve a client’s problem. And it was all I could do to not check my blackberry while we were studying James 2, to make sure everything was copacetic.

    James talks about works, but all I could think about was work.

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  2. It is surely a reality that there are both workaholics and real average hard-working individuals and, perhaps, companies. But when you read about a guy like Mark Saltzman you have to assume their’s an audience. And I think especially among younger generations this is becoming an increasing reality. Older generations simply had a different work ethic than most younger ones. At least that’s been my personal experience…(knowing both myself and other young men).

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  3. I think there is a different set of expectations among workers in their 20s. More of a “what’s in it for me” mentality. They expect workplaces to be fulfilling, fun, humane, focused on meeting their needs, etc. Meanwhile us “old” dudes are happy if we can manage to remain employed from week to week and support our families. But that being said, I don’t have any young people who work for me who are actually slackers. They want to work. But they want work to work for them too.

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