Latest / Prayer Before Work / My 15-Minute Meeting Turned Into an Hour of My Boss's Personal Life - Prayer Before Work
Transcript
- Sean Graver: So your one-on-one meeting was supposed to be about 15 minutes long. Now it's been going on for almost an hour, and you've heard more about your supervisor's ex than you ever wanted to know. And this happens most weeks. I mean, you care about your supervisor as a person, but you also have actual work waiting, and you're not sure how to end a conversation without seeming cold or disrespectful to someone above you. Well, my name is Sean. Welcome back to Prayer Before Work. And King Solomon writes something I think surprisingly practical for a moment like this in Ecclesiastes. We're gonna be in chapter three, verses one and verse seven. For everything there is a season, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. So listening well is a real gift, and there's a place for it. But Solomon is also clear that silence and speech both have their proper time, which means an unlimited amount of listening. Isn't automatically the most loving option, especially when it's coming at the expense of everything else on your plate. Now you can care about someone and still hold a boundary around your time. A simple redirect works better than most people expect like this. maybe something like, I want to hear more about that, but I've got a deadline I need to get back to. Can we pick this up another time? Now that's not rude. It's honest and it actually respects the relationship more than just resenting every extended meeting. Now, if it keeps happening, it might be worth a direct conversation outside of the one-on-one itself, letting your supervisor know you value the relationship and also need your check-ins to stay on track. So let's pray. God, give us the courage to set boundaries with people we respect, even when they're above us. Help us care about others without losing ourselves or our work in the process. And give us the right words when we need to redirect a conversation and help us do it with kindness instead of resentment. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Go make today count.