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What to Do When You've Been Treated Unfairly at Work · Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

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  Bart Leger: Jocelyn Bell Burnell was a graduate student staring
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  at long rolls of chart paper when she noticed a strange
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  little signal, a pulse repeating with impossible regularity. She
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  had found something no one had ever seen, a pulsar, and it
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  would change astronomy. The discovery was hers. She was the
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  one who spotted it, night after night, and pressed to understand
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  what it was. But when the Nobel Prize came a few years later, in
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  1974, it didn't go to her. It went to her male supervisor, and
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  her name was left off entirely. The truth was, the biggest
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  discovery of her young life had just been handed to someone else,
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  and everyone watched it happen. We'll come back to what she did
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  with the rest of her life, but
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  first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm
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  Bart Leger. When I was in the sheriff's office, they brought
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  in an instructor from another state to teach a class Was
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  certified to teach and had years of experience in it. That
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  happened more than once, and here's the part of it that got
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  under my skin. Departments a lot bigger than ours were flying me
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  across the country to train their people. I was good enough
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  for them, and apparently not good enough at home. It took me
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  a while to get there, but I finally came to an understanding.
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  Those other departments calling me was all the validation I
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  needed. My own department didn't have to agree with it for it to
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  be true. There are stretches when your workplace is fair, and
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  there are stretches when it isn't. You watched somebody less
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  qualified get the promotion. Your idea showed up in a meeting
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  with another person's name attached to it. It's one thing
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  to be treated unfairly, and it's another thing entirely to keep
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  showing up on Monday and act like it never happened. And
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  here's where that damage gets done. You start running it on a
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  loop, rehearsing what you should have said, and wondering who
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  knew and who said nothing. home composing an email you'll
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  probably never send. The unfair thing happened once. The
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  fretting, though, probably is going to happen every day, and
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  that's the part of it that eats at you. David wrote a psalm
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  about exactly this, Psalm 37, verses 1 through 3. Don't worry
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  about the wicked or envy those who do wrong.
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  Look at what he tells you to quit doing. Don't worry about
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  the wicked or envy those who do wrong or those who take
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  advantage. Older translations say fret not, and fretting is a
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  word for knowing on something, and that is what it does to a
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  person. It keeps an injustice alive for years after the event
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  that caused it. It's over. Then David gives his reason, and it's
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  an argument about time. Like grass, they soon fade away.
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  telling you to look at the calendar. The person who took
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  credit for your work is operating on a clock that runs
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  out. Whatever he built with it is grass. And then comes the
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  part I would have you write down somewhere. Trust in the Lord and
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  do good. Two commands, and the second one's active. Do good.
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  Keep doing your work Keep doing your work well, even where
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  nobody is handing out credit for it. That asks more of you than
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  it sounds like. The natural move after you've been passed over is
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  to start giving less. You pull back an inch, and nobody notices
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  except you. And then your work slips a little. Psalm 37 says,
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  He is a truer judge than any HR department that ever wrote a
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  policy. Jocelyn Bell Burrell could have spent the rest of her
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  life bitter. Instead, she chose a different road. snub define
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  her, and she kept doing excellent science for decades.
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  She became one of the most respected astronomers alive, and
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  she spent her life mentoring others. Then, in 2018, she was
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  given a prize worth $3 million. She kept none of it. She gave
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  the whole amount away to help women and minority students
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  become the physicists the field had once passed by. The medal
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  had gone to someone else. The work and the good she did with
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  it were still hers. Look at that time frame, 50 years between the
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  snub and the prize. And look at what she did with those 50 years.
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  She spent them working, and she spent a good deal of herself
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  building other people's careers while she did it. The medal went
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  to someone else. Everything she built in the 50 years after it
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  stayed hers, including $3 million she turned into other
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  people's futures. Here's today's challenge. Take the unfair thing
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  to God today and tell Him the particulars. What happened and
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  who did it? He's not going to be shocked by any of it. Then, do
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  the second half of the verse. Pick one piece of your work this
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  week and do it better than the situation deserves because
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  you're doing it for God and because it is who you are.
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  Father, you saw what happened. You were in that meeting. You
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  know who got the credit for it. judge than any committee or any
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  HR department. For everybody listening who's been gnawing on
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  something unfair for months now, take it off the loop tonight and
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  keep them from growing lacks in their work. Do what you do with
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  people who trust you and keep doing good anyway. In Jesus'
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  name, amen. If Daily Devotions for Busy Lives has been an
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  encouragement to you, would you take a minute and leave a rating
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  and review? It helps more people find these devotions and it only
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  takes a moment. I'd be so grateful. And thanks for joining
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  me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, the unfair
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  thing happened once and the fretting is what keeps it going.
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  Take it to God and then go and do good work. Come back next
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  time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's
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  truth. Until then, God bless and have a great day.