Grace and dismissal

Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord. (Psalm 101:8)

Each day David tries to fight evil in his city and his palace. But there are times when fighting evil is no longer helpful nor sufficient. At such times David bans the guilty ones from his city. If an employee does not appear to take a series of warnings to heart, then there will be a moment at which we need to say goodbye. Sometimes we may want to ban evil and at the same time desire to mitigate the consequences of a dismissal for the dismissed.

Wilfred is the managing director of a car company. He recently hired a young man, Chris, to clean customers’ cars. One day Wilfred sees Chris in one of the customers’ cars passing the company building at high speed. Immediately Chris is summoned, and he is told that this is not the way we do things around here. Customers’ cars need to be treated with care. Apart from this, Wilfred feels responsible for Chris, the company, and himself. He does not want Chris to risk an accident involving other people.

One week later, Wilfred sees the speeding happen again. Again, Chris is summoned. Wilfred is furious and asks Chris why he drove so fast. With a disarming smile the young man replies, "Sorry, boss, but these are such beautiful and fast cars. I can’t help myself, but just need to briefly touch the accelerator." Internally to himself, Wilfred smiles; he likes this boy. Chris receives a warning in writing that one more such trespassing means he will be fired. Two weeks later, the same incident happens. Wilfred has to fire Chris.

He finds it really difficult, because he has grown to love Chris, but he cannot but dismiss him because of the precedential effect. Before he calls Chris to fire him, he first calls a good friend who owns a courier service. He explains what happened and asks whether he would hire Chris. Wilfred offers to pay for one month on trial, and this is agreed upon. Wilfred summons Chris and fires him. He tips him to apply for a job with the courier service. Chris does so. They are content with him, and he has worked there for many years. He does not know about the agreement between his new boss and Wilfred. Wilfred is happy that he could arrange this for Chris.

Question for the day
How do you deal with those moments when you need to punish, but also want to show grace?

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For more information about Christian entrepreneurship, read the book The Jerusalem Entrepreneur, becoming a Source of Well-Being, by Wouter Droppers or connect to www.europartners.org.