Careers for Single Moms - Articles 

The Supreme Boss
Maria Erb from Spirituality.com 

Maybe you've played this game at work. The workload increases -- but your capacity doesn't. The company supports you -- but can't get you any help. Your co-workers know you're stretched to the limit -- but so are they.

So what do you do?

When this happens, my co-workers and I often just vent. Even though we laugh and joke and try to help each other cope, still this isn't enough to get us what we really need. What we need is to know that we can get the job done, that we are in good hands, that our needs are being considered and will be met, and that we are appreciated.

When this seems too much to ask of any human employer, I've learned to apply to a higher power. Here's my story.

No Additional Help Was Available
The project I had been working on for several years began to mushroom, and it grew beyond what one person (me) could do. I went to my boss with some recommendations on how to handle the increased workload. All she could tell me was that no additional help was available, and some staff members who had the skills to assist were already tapped out.

I walked out of that meeting thinking the whole situation was unfair. Indignation, resentment -- you name it, I felt it. But more than that, I dearly wanted to find a real solution to the situation. I didn't want to waste time spending days and weeks in resentment. I also didn't want to be short-tempered with those who needed my services, just wishing they would go away so I could get some work done. There had to be a better way.

God is what's really going on here.
What's really going on here? I asked myself. And then I knew. In a word -- God. I thought, "God is what's really going on here and everywhere. Good is what is going on here. Justice, mercy, wisdom, strength, grace, and beauty are what is really going on here." The mistake, I realized, comes when I expected other people to be the source of these attributes. I needed instead to look to God.

Right now, where there was no obvious solution, I could know that God is supreme, ruling over all, tenderly giving everyone at work what we need. Right where there seems to be not enough people to help me, the caring, nurturing, divine power I need is still present. This has often come to me as ingenious ideas that provide real solutions.

I figured out the resources that we already had.
This is, in fact, what happened. When I changed my attitude from resentment over human deficiencies to acceptance of divine supremacy, solutions came quickly and easily. I figured out how to use the resources we already had more efficiently and how to leverage the work that others had done to get what I needed without adding to anyone else's workload (including my own).

I also learned to let go of the outcome of "my" project and of all the personal responsibility, willfulness, pride, and opinion associated with it. What a relief to get that heavy weight off my shoulders!

I'm happy to say that things are still working out very well. I'm still listening for those healing, saving ideas and new ones come every day.