Born Again Christianity in the Workplace

One of the taboos of workplace conversation is spirituality. We pretend it doesn't exist. It does. I didn't know that Jim Dunn was a born-again Christian until we started talking in his St. Louis office. The subject of religion in the workplace sound so much more interesting than software maintenance, the subject I had asked him to talk about. So we went there. Reaction to the article was swift and positive. Many readers felt gratified that an important part of their lives could be sympathetically and responsibly discussed in a business magazine.

One on One with Jim Dunn
Published January, 1993

If you look closely at how God put this world together, it's very logical. He is the best programmer there is.

It's somehow appropriate that Jim Dunn works for a company named Angelica. Dunn is Manager of Technical Support for Angelica Corporation, a large manufacturer of uniforms headquartered in St. Louis. I first interviewed Jim about five years ago and although we never got into anything personal, I remembered there was an aura of serenity about him. I was curious about Jim so I invited him to discuss his life and work.

Jim Dunn is a Born Again Christian. This revelation surprised me because, although I've met literally thousands of people in the course of reporting on the IS industry, I have never met anyone who volunteered they were Christian fundamentalists. Jim Dunn, now 45 years old, was saved when he was 33. He was happy to talk about his beliefs, now the central organizing force in his life.

Dunn was born in Urbana, IL, where he attended the University of Illinois. He didn't have a particularly religious upbringing and, in fact, he happily led the mindless hedonistic lifestyle encouraged by the counterculture of the late '60s and '70s. He married at a young age, had a daughter, and is now married again. His hobbies are focused on the out-doors: hiking, painting, and photography. Since Dunn and I are about the same age, I found it interesting to ask him to reminisce about the formative decade we had it common--the 1960s.

Someone once observed that if you can remember the '60s, you weren't there. Were you a square or a freak?

Let's just say I had liberal tendencies. I certainly didn't assign a moral quality to most things. I wore my hair long and my attitude bordered on "if it feels good, do it."

Having long hair was a real political statement then. When did you start growing your hair long? Did anyone give you a hard time about it?

I started growing my hair right after I turned 16. I tried to keep it clean and well combed, but my Dad and a lot of other people had a hard time accepting it. I remember going into a clothing store when I was 18 or so. Some guy walked behind me and growled something like, "It's hard to tell the girls from the boys these days."

When you started working, was the hair a problem?

Yeah. This was around 1966 and I was working at a construction job.

With hardhat types? This is going to be good.

Yeah. My hair is long but since I have to wear a hard hat all day, no one can see. So I work there for six months or so before someone sees me without my hard hat. All of a sudden it's a very big deal. The foreman tells me quite frankly that he doesn't care for hippies so either the hair has to go or I'm out of a job. Most of the other workers second that opinion.

What'd you do?

I decide to be reasonable. I cut my hair. When I go in the next day, the foreman comes up to me on the job site. I'm wearing my helmet. "Did you cut it?," he demands. I say I did. "Well, let me see it," he says, starting to pull my chin strap off. He takes one look and says, "It's not short enough." So I quit. I can see this guy is never going to be satisfied.

These days we have a name for what you went through: harassment.

Actually it worked out. After I quit, I was scrambling for a job and landed a job as a second shift computer operator at the university. And that's how I got into data processing.

That's ironic. Wasn't long hair for a second shift computer operator at that time pretty much mandatory?

[Laughs] Yeah. I grew it back good. And it was never a problem. There were people there even more conservative than my folks and we got along great.

Before we talk about your faith, let me ask about the big question that all men of our age--especially those who aspire to political office--have to answer. Did you support the war in Vietnam and did you serve?

I frankly didn't see how our interests and security were involved in Vietnam. I had heard a number of people talking about how strategic the area was and how important it was for us to be there, but I didn't buy it. In any case, I've been blind in my right eye since birth due a damaged optic nerve so I had a deferment. The army was not interested in my services, even if I had been inclined to volunteer.

Did you come from a conspicuously religious household?

Not at all. We went to services infrequently and I was briefly encouraged to attend the Methodist Church. My parents did try to teach me right from wrong. They taught me enough to keep me alive until the point I could make up my own mind.

How did you come to develop your present beliefs?

My wife and I were introduced to the Amway business in 1979. I saw some financial and tax advantageous to owning my own business, so I decided to give it a shot. I was working for the Federal Reserve Bank at the time so maybe I was thinking about money. Anyway, the people that we met at Amway were Born Again. At conferences and retreats, many of the more successful Amway salespeople said they owed their success to their relationship with Jesus Christ. At that point, I still defined success in a very limited way. So I basically said, fine, if that's what it takes to be successful, I'll follow Jesus.

What happened next?

Within a few years, we stopped actively working our Amway business. I believed that the Lord was directing us to do so. Later, He showed me that I had allowed greed to creep into my life. The Lord had used the Amway distributors that we were associated with to plan the seed of the Gospel in me. I was beginning to get a glimpse of what real success is so I had to make a change.

What, for you, is real success?

Real success is becoming who God created me to be and following his plan for my life. My life is not in how much money or how many possession I can accumulate. I diligently began learning how to live a Christian lifestyle.

Did you fault Amway for its unabashed celebration of materialism and financial success?

Not at all. My attitude toward material things was out of balance. I had allowed greed to motivate some of my thinking and actions. Amway is a fine business.

What were you thinking?

I began to realize that if I really wanted to be successful, the spiritual side of my life was the real foundation. All of us are eternal beings. I saw I had to pay more attention to the spiritual side--and less to the physical--in order to really succeed.

I'm interested in how you function as a manager. Does being Born Again make you a better manager?

One aspect of applying Christianity to business is learning to cooperate. The more I cooperate, the better the company's going to function. That doesn't mean the end of disagreements; only that we work together to work them out. The whole purpose is to help each other be right, not to set traps to prove somebody wrong.

Do you treat the people you work with differently?

I think so. One difference is that now I see that part of my job is to help the people that report to me succeed. Yes, I'm there to lead and there are some decisions that I have to make, but the main idea is for me to determine what they need to succeed and to see to it that they have the resources. My job is more of a servant/leader.

What aspect of being a servant appeals to you?

Doing things that need to be done, regardless of whether it's my job or not.

I remember a Born-Again supervisor in a company I worked for. Although I didn't report to him, I learned that he was paralyzed as a manager because he found it difficult to discipline his subordinates, as if only God has the right to judge people. Do you understand his predicament?

I understand the temptation. But the Bible supports the idea of separating the person from the sin. I don't believe in judging people. But as a manager, my job is to judge behavior and to judge whether it's in the interests of the company or not. That I can do.

What behaviors are you concerned about?

Unless it affects their job performance, the company is not paying me to intervene. I respect that. But if they are doing something that is detrimental to the company, then it's my job to see that that behavior is changed and is not repeated.

When is being known as a Christian uncomfortable at work?

There are people in every company who sometimes use rough language. Sometimes they say something and guiltily look at me and say, "Oops, sorry," It's not like it shocks me, although I prefer not to hear it. And when someone uses the Lord's name in vain, I like to think that most people grieve a little.

What are some other behaviors from your subordinates that you have a particularly hard time with?

Arrogance. This is because in my early working years, I thought that knowledge was the only answer. So when I see someone who is, shall we say, highly opinionated, I sometimes struggle to react with a forgiving attitude. It reminds me that God has not burned every trace of arrogance out of me yet.

Computer professionals tend to be very rational and process-oriented. Is there a paradox in being a systems analyst and having a deep commitment to faith?

There is no paradox as far as I'm concerned. If you look closely at how God put this world together, it's very logical. It makes sense and nothing is wasted. He's the best programmer there is.

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