NEHEMIAH 5: KEEPING UP MORALE

There is one major issue that comes up in this chapter. Under Persian rule, the people in a district were expected to support their appointed governors monetarily. But those of the wealthy class in Judea were already milking the people dry by charging them exorbitant interest rates for loans. And if they defaulted on their payments, their children were often sold into slavery. These complaints come to Nehemiah's ears and he becomes righteously indignant.

This illustrates one of Nehemiah's reason for success as a manager of people – he not only listened to their complaints but also acted on them. I have been blessed in the past by having direct supervisors who were open to listening to me and then supporting me if they felt my complaints or suggestions warranted it.

Nehemiah confronts these elite members of society in order to expose their wrongdoings. Now humiliating those who report to you in a public manner is not often the wisest or kindest thing to do, but on occasion that is the only way you can get some people to change their behavior. And the other thing that it accomplishes is to show those who have been abused by their actions that you are wholeheartedly behind them in trying to redress the situation. I must admit that I have gotten on my high horse on occasion and reacted in public when I should have talked to the offending parties first in private (as Paul advises). However, there are times when you know that people who are dead set on pursuing their own selfish ends instead of working toward the common good need to be exposed for all to see.

The other thing about Nehemiah as a model manager that we learn from this chapter is that he tries to restore morale by demonstrating that he is also sacrificing along with everyone else during the difficult times they were living in. He reveals that he (along with his brothers) has been lending the poorer people money and grain (v. 10), refused to take the food allowance usually given to the governor (v. 14), acquired no land while he was in Judea (v. 16), and even held lavish banquets for others at his own expense (vv. 17-18). All of this went to show that he was united with them in trying to reach the common goal set before them. His position did not him exempt from making sacrifices along with everyone else.

I can relate to Nehemiah's situation in that I was once placed in an even more difficult one in terms of my personal welfare. I had been brought in about a year earlier to supervise a research group whose work I was totally unacquainted with. And then our group was brought in to to top management in order to inform us that a whole division of the company was being sold to a competitor and that we were part of the deal. The tentative agreement between the two firms was not at all favorable to us as employees. We were each guaranteed to be given an offer from the other company, whose research facilities were located in another state which had a much higher cost of living than ours. However, that company was free to fire any of us soon after we arrived if they so wished (and they later followed through with that threat for a number of our sales force). On the other hand, if we chose to reject their offer of employment, local management told us that there would not be enough slots in our company left to go around. And our company was given strict orders by the purchasing company not to give  secret guarantees to any of us.

Nehemiah's first move, as you recall, was to chew out the ones causing the problem, the “leaders” of the people. But often, as in my case, you are not in any position in the company to complain to upper management concerning their immoral behavior. But there is always Nehemiah's second action to emulate. You can show your group that you are in the same boat and are suffering equally. In my case, I was in even a worse disadvantage than my group was. I had been out of the area of hands-on research for a number of years; I knew next to nothing about the specific technology the other company was interested in; I was later told by my counterpart in the purchasing company that they already had more management staff than they knew what to do with; my oldest children were approaching college age and in-state tuition in the new state was way higher than in Texas; and to top it off, I had been given a secret assurance by my second level manager.

The last point would seem to be more of an advantage than a disadvantage, but that was not the case. In fact, the assurance I was given (by my bosses' boss who had fought my first promotion into management much earlier) was that I needed to keep up the morale of the group until the deal was finalized, and that would not take place for many more months to come. And if I failed to do that and the business suffered in any way, or if the deal fell through, I would be held personally responsible and would not have a job with either company.

Naturally, the longer the process dragged on, the more frustrated my direct reports became. Almost each day I would have to intervene in conflicts between two or more of them. One employee would be calm one day and then blow up over nothing the following day, and I could never predict which of them would go ballistic next. One thing that kept me going over the long duration of this interim period was the fact that God had always seen to it in the past that I came out ahead, no matter what the circumstances. However, even my reassurances to my group were taken by some as an indication that management had given me promises that I would be well taken care of, unlike the rest of them. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

It all worked out well in the end, but that is a part of the story that I will relate in my post on Nehemiah 6 regarding the way to deal with enemies.