The Faithful Servant: Inspiring Thoughts About the Employer and the Employee

Adapted from Miracles, the official publication of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Chaplaincy, West Visayas State University Medical Center, vol. II, 38.


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The relationship of the master and the servant is very crucial in getting things done. In any organization many success stories could be attributed to the quality of service born out of this connection. We hear many stories of kindhearted masters and good for nothing servants or cruel bosses and faithful employees. Indeed, it is a very complex reality that demands a thorough examination and profound reflection that instead of confronting the “who’s to blame” dilemma we rather try to examine our roles because we can be both the master and the servant.

Character

Character is about doing the right things even if no else is watching. It is about the consistency in us with or without the peering eyes of others. We will be defined not in the presence of the crowd but it ins absence. The cliché about the cat and the mouse is proven in the different levels of the working environment. We want to please those who are at the upper level of the bureaucracy but climbing the corporate ladder could also be short lived because ability may get us to the top. It really takes character to keep us there.

Consistency builds character. Jesus said: “Blessed is that servant whom this master on his arrival finds doing so.” (Luke 12:37). Aristotle quipped: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” We have our moral compass within and the trust we earned from other is not a spur of the moment thing but a result of discipline and hard work that will eventually shape our lives. We have to build it piece by piece through our choices, courage and conviction. It is about doing things not just to get by but get it right, not about being caught but not doing wrong, but most of all, it is not what others say or the image we project but who we really are, it is being a tree not just the shadow.

Compassion

Compassion is an essential element in relationships. We have hierarchies that could build or destroy communities. Compassion also comes with consideration. It is about having the heart for what others would feel. Compassionate followers, indeed, could be a consequence of having compassionate leaders. According to Cassandra Clare: “You could know a man not by what his friends said about him, but by how he treated his servants.”

Courage

Courage is synonymous with fidelity. It is loyalty in concrete. According To Martin Luther King, Jr. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and conveniences, but where he stands at times of challenges and controversy.” Courage is not about looking for conflicts, it is about standing one’s ground when it comes. It is about control or domination, letting go when it is not worth fighting for. It is not about trumpeting your voice in order to be heard, it is about holding on to one’s principles and believe it will be heard even in a whisper because it is the truth.