F is for Follow

One of the Mog's favorite sayings is "Everyone is Following Someone".  He goes on in his message closing nearly every week to say that "at 23 years of age" he chose to follow Jesus and then encourages his audience to do the same.  But my close interactions with the man for nearly ten years lead me to believe that he has little interest in whether his staff is following after God; he cares only that they follow after Him.

Just a few weeks after i started working at the Mog's church the Operations Director pulled me aside after a staff meeting with an incredulous look on her face.  "How do you get away with saying no to him?", referring to my willingness to disagree with the aforementioned Mog.  I found the question very odd.  After all, when i was hired the Mog had assured me that healthy discussion between himself and the staff was always encouraged.  And i took him at his word.  As i would see after i'd worked there a while, the staff already knew better.

After i had been working at the Mog's church for a few years it was decided that the staff would participate in an anonymous Best Christian Workplaces survey designed to evaluate the overall health of the staff culture.  I thought this was a great idea and said so to the Mog, although i cautioned him that the results might surprise him since i knew the kinds of things the staff said about him when he wasn't around.  But when the results came in, i was the one with the big surprise.  It seemed that the only one willing to answer honestly on an anonymous survey was me.  Apparently the staff knew what i did not.  To the Mog, 'anonymous' doesn't mean what you think it means.

Two months later i sat in the Mog's office along with the Mogette [i'll get to her in some future posts i'm sure] for my employee evaluation.  In that meeting i made it clear that i absolutely loved my job. But i also made it clear that working with the Mog was often very challenging.  While i had hoped this would spark some great discussion on how to improve our working relationship, instead i was witness to a truly epic red faced rant [more on this later as well] during which i was asked point blank if i had been the one to give the less than positive responses on the anonymous BCW survey that was specifically designed to "Discover the Health of your Organization".  I'm going to pause a second to let that sink in...

Yes, you read that right.  The Mog actually made me reveal my answers to an anonymous survey specifically designed to gauge the health of the Staff Culture he was leading.  ummm...  what?

So i learned a lot in my time with the Mog and his staff.  And he's right, everyone is following someone.  And the Mog's staff knows full well who they better follow.  Otherwise they might end up Just.  Like.  Me.



[Note:  To the staff members that have chosen to distance themselves from me now due to this blog...  I understand.  I have bills to pay too...]