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Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, take no oath at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you take an oath by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37 But make sure your statement is, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil origin. [1]

~Jesus (Matthew 5:33-37)

At work, it is worth it’s weight in gold to find co-workers you can count on and trust to do what they say they will. It is even more important that we model this ourselves. We are being watched. The one thing that will destroy our witness faster than anything is incompetence. When others cannot count on us, they will not listen to anything we have to say about Jesus.

When to say “yes”. This is the easier side of the issue. It is easy to say yes. When we commit to get something done by Friday and we can/do, bingo, we are good.

  • When it turns out to be tougher and more complicated than we thought, we will put in the extra effort to make it happen.
  • It is real trouble when we say yes to something that cannot be done well in the time asked.
  • We do a disservice to all when we do that.

When to say “no”. This is the tough one. Most of us do not like to say no. We want to be the “can do” employee that can be counted on. After many years of dealing with this in the workplace, my sense is that it is a question of making priorities clear.

Here are some high-level thoughts on how to deal with the challenge of saying no at work:

  • Try to say it as infrequently as possible.
  • Try to negotiate over priorities. Something like “Yes, I can make that happen if I delay in doing XYZ”.
  • Try not to make yourself look bad by saying no to your supervisor in front of others in a group meeting. Again, it will come down to priorities. Best to negotiate those outside of the group if possible.

Remember the perspective of Jesus. It is either yes or no. Anything else is evil. That is sobering. This is a warning to us to take this seriously. Our job is to focus on clarity.

[1] New American Standard Bible. (2020). (Mt 5:33–37). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.