Latest / The Healthy Church Staff Podcast / You Preached Family on Sunday. She Got Two Weeks Upaid Weeks on Monday.

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You Preached Family on Sunday. She Got Two Weeks Upaid Weeks on Monday. · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, my guess is if you have a church companion, you probably have a policy for who can use that band.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: You probably got a list of approved drivers, who gets the keys, and you can probably produce that document in 30 seconds.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't have a policy when who gets paid when they have a kid.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Your kid's pastors having a kid, having a baby.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: The plan is volunteers and guilt.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Two weeks unpaid vacation, and not vacation, you're just not gonna pay.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe a meal or two in a casserole.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: If this sounds familiar, we're gonna talk about it today here on the podcast because this is not a theology fight about family.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm gonna talk about today.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is about staff and operations.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: You already know how to write a policy.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: You wrote one for the van.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now you need to take care of writing one for real life situations that involve your staff.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com, and thanks for joining me today for a very sticky conversation.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: The van got a binder, the baby got a hallway.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: You background check nursery volunteers, you ask who gets paid when a staff member has a baby, and nobody quite knows.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: The room goes quiet.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then somebody just says, We'll figure it out.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Figuring it out is not a practice, figuring out is not a favor.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Favors depend on who is pregnant and who is liked and how close it is to Christmas.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's not family, that is provision with a verse on top of it.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not going to do that now, are we?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about the person who pays for the improvisation is not you.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: That means that if it doesn't affect you, a lot of times you just kind of want to wing it.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it does affect people on the staff.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And here's how a lot of times it goes down in churches.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know because I hear those stories.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: She told you she was pregnant, you hugged her, you were excited.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: You couldn't be more happy for her and her family.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Genuinely, you couldn't be more happy for her and her family.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then she asked about leave.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, oh crap.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't know what to say, so you said, okay, you know what?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk to the board about it.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you take it to the board, and the board says they'll pray about it.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And ends up that she got two unpaid weeks, and a volunteer rotation for Sunday that she had to work out herself beforehand, and just a fog of guilt that she should be back for VBS.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wrote it down before she needed it.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was on staff at a church, one of my responsibilities was the monthly church newsletter.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: We used, I forget what even program we used back.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: This was back in the day.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember the newsletter was due, and we did a very nice-looking newsletter.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: The newsletter was due, and it was due on the day that my son was born.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember getting a message that asked me when I was going to come to the church to finish the newsletter.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this is something that just was not figured out beforehand 30 years ago, and it's not figured out beforehand 30 years later.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of churches still do not have a policy on something like this.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: In this case, she had to negotiate her own recovery while she was still on the schedule.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: You platform family as a doctrine, you say a hall of our church is family, but you treat leave like it's a personal exception or a personal favor.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, dads don't get a real plan either.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: They get a Sunday off and a slap on the back and say, Good job.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Glad your family's growing.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Family is a sermon, but the coverage that you give is the tell.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: You will put three volunteers in her classroom.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: You will ask the coordinator to just cover.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: You'll call it community.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what she will call it, though.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: My job only works if I don't have a body.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: You have coverage plans for when the pastor's on a trip.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: You do not have a coverage plan for when a staff member just had a baby.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So the plan becomes the new mom's phone.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: A few quick questions in week two.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: If the ministry collapses when one person gives birth, you know what?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't really have a ministry, you had a person you were unwilling to spell out.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so I know this a lot of times it just comes down to budget.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know your heart.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: The budget's real.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have a corporate leave document.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Todd, you're asking me to do things only big companies do.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I am here.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're trying to be generous case by case because you care about her, and that's decent.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh a good thing.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And case by case is how one staff member gets a casserole and another gets a lecture about calling.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Kindness that only shows up after the ultrasound is not a policy, it's a scramble.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you have to go to your board and ask for permission, you don't have a policy.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And don't hear me wrong, you don't need a 50-page handbook.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: You need one page that says actually what you will actually do, who it covers, birth, adoption, it doesn't make any difference.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: The partner who isn't in the one in labor, that has to be in there too.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: What's paid?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: What isn't?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: How many weeks can you actually stand behind this person with pay?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Who covers the work so it isn't a guilt fog and a group text?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Write what is true.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: If the true thing is two weeks paid and then unpaid, say that.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Say that beforehand.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you wait until the pregnancy happens or the child is born and you say, we're gonna give you two weeks paid, and then you're unpaid, that's gonna have a whole different scenario than if they knew that policy before the the pregnancy happened.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: You need to you need to spell that out, not just to potential mothers, okay?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You need to spell it out to the whole staff, not in a whisper to the person who's currently pregnant.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh practice nobody can see until they're showing.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's not really a practice, that's a private deal.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And private deals are how you preach family and practice favorites.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's the gut check.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Would you hand the van keys to somebody with no rules?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, going back to my original statement.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Would you hand the van keys to somebody with no rules?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, you wouldn't.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: You'd want that form.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: You'd want that name on the list.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: A baby is not less serious, people, than a 15-passenger van.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So stop making the pregnant staffer write the policy with their due date on the calendar.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Name it while nobody in the room needs to have it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you prove that this is not a favor.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So here's your bottom line for today.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is a specific episode, and I know I'm stepping on some toes here probably.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is true.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: You really do.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have a policy for who can use the van.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have a policy for who gets paid when they have a kid, and you need to.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Family on Sunday and two unpaid weeks on Monday is not hospitality.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is really a missing page.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So this week, I'd love to have you do something really uncomfortable.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Write or at least name a parental leave practice.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even a one-page, this is what we actually do now.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then tell the staff, not just the person currently pregnant.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, this would be great if you didn't have anybody pregnant, but that's why you need to do it now.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You need to do it this week.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I know this one stings, but I also know this is also the reality.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: You care about the families on your team.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why you're listening to this podcast.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I think most of you, if you don't have any kind of a policy, you're gonna at least start talking to your board about what we can do.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: We had a situation in one of the churches that that I helped over the years where another pol another staff member came down with a really bad disease, and they had no policy for that.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: They had no policy for that, and it turned out this person needed to take about six months off.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And because there was no policy, this person thought that they would just continue to be paid.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't know at the time whether this person would come back or not.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: But after six months, it was really a hardship on the church, and believe me, the staff person was going through a hard time as well.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the staff person was really surprised when the church came and said, This will be the last day that we pay you.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: The staff person looked at that as a betrayal, and all of that could have been totally taken care of if there was a written policy in place, in this case, before the disease was even diagnosed.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: You never know what's going to happen, not only to your staff, but to you.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important that you have that policy in place for you and your family as well.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this is helpful.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need some help getting together a policy.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: We have some people on our team that are really good at this kind of thing.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if you need some help, don't know where to start, just reach out to me and let's have a conversation.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see if I can't hook you up with somebody on our team that could help you in this area.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be right back here tomorrow.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, what are we talking about tomorrow?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go see what we're talking about tomorrow.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, it's a little bit lighter than this.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about the cognitive decline alarm bell for ministry leaders.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that doesn't sound much more light.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Good on you, Todd, for scheduling two really deep ones right back together.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I hope you'll join me.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes some of the harder episodes are actually the ones that we need to hear.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you'll join me right back here again to Michael.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna help you.