12.27.2006

how should a ‘christian’ business person act?

should this be a conundrum? i didn’t think so until the other day (2 days pre-christmas day) when my mom and i walked into a store sporting the ‘christian’ title 15 minutes before the listed closing time. of all the times i have slipped into a soon-to-close business, I have never received the greeting “we are closing in 5 minutes …blah, blah, blah” (basically please leave asap so i can ring out my till). we left the store in the allocated 5 minutes, then watched them turn away 3 shopping parties 2 minutes before the listed closing time. did i mention that this was happening 2 days before christmas?! strangely enough, my mom said it was about the third time she had received similar treatment from the employees of this particular store, and the reason wasn’t always the clock approaching closing time. for example, my parents had a major basement flood in the summer and she was shunned when asking for some help on book pricing in order to submit an insurance claim (which i really don’t think is too much to ask from someone who has not the know how or means to check pricing on the internet). my question is, what would a non-christian, or a person in desperate need think or feel if they received this treatment from someone who is assumed a christian based on the affiliation with their employment. actually, isn’t this just stupid business practice regardless your religious conviction? i guess lack of perceived competition with no other christian bookstores within a 50 km radius may contribute to lack of customer service, although i believe chapters and online christian bookstores may hold a slight price advantage … plus you wouldn’t have to deal with lovely ‘christian’ business people.

6 Comments:

At 8:40 a.m., Blogger caro said...

wow, that's just plain bad business practice altogether . . . I agree with the faith aspect though too. You'd think that a business purporting to be based on a faith that requires more than just being a good person would ensure that its people reflected a customer service attitude that goes further than the best of the good businesses out there.

 
At 10:35 a.m., Blogger Vailgirl said...

Thanks for the link Wade. I liked her comment about the coffee cup near the sancutary. Actually reminds me of a conversation I witnessed over a turkey dinner. Some people of an older generation were discussing the whole 'coffee in the sancutary' issue and I thought my cousin and his wife were going to blow a gasket ... you see she is part of the ministry team for 'The Meeting House' (a very coffee-drinker friendly place).

 
At 11:36 a.m., Blogger Tam said...

I think it's sad that Christian business' in our church have such a bad reputation, and really they do it to themselves. Some example of Christianity-paying poor wages, treating food industry workers quite poor, and being rude snobs. Oh ya, that would make me curious about going to heaven.
i made a vow to never work for a Christian business(yes, broken with the Christian school) because of what i've seen and heard. Though, i think i've seen now how it can work well also-the flip side i guess.

 
At 6:15 p.m., Blogger TKD said...

HEY Christians!!
this just begged me to ask- what is the Christian perspective on capitalism in the first place? isn't the entire economic system based on the exploitation and alienation of others? doesn't sound too Christian to me.

 
At 12:33 p.m., Blogger Vailgirl said...

thanks for the comment t! sorry i've taken a while to respond -- i had to think through your comment a little. i think it is funny that the evangelical christian community has tagged themselves 'sepearate from society' when it comes to 'sinful' issues (ie. drinking, drugs, homosexuality ...) yet is totally engrossed in capitalism which as you pointed out is based on non-christ-like characteristics. somehow we’ve twisted capitalism into our idea of how Jesus would like us to live … ‘if i am a good business person then i will have lots of funds to fund the lord’s work…’. i remember my dad saying long ago that in a perfect christian community, communism would work perfectly. based on my personal observation of the evangelical christian community, i would re-phrase that to saying if everyone lived their life as Christ did, socialism would definitely fly … which makes me think, why is it most evangelicals are right-wing while the socialist are ‘unbelievers’. sorry for the use of use of my christianise jargon as i sort through these issues in my head. any thought from any other ‘christians’?

 
At 12:04 p.m., Blogger caro said...

I wish I had time to think through a proper response. My two cents--religion in general and in specific is mind boggling.

 

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