For my brother in law, and his family; for his job and his relationship with my sister.
The job he had for most of their marriage was not a well paying one, but they were saving money on day care by him going in to work very early and then coming home shortly before my sister would leave for the closing shift at her store, sort of a tag team arrangement. After a few years it was starting to wear on all of them, with my niece's demeanor changing and my sister getting stress related illnesses.
Finally, last year a former boss of his asked him to apply for a position with his new company, one that sounded like it was created with him in mind. It wasn't everything he hoped, but it was something he seemed well enough suited for him, and they had to make some kind of change, so my sister quit her job and they moved across the country.
A few months later it comes out that his boss seems to have adopted a "sink or swim" policy; he's leaving my brother in law to figure things out on his own, on the grounds that he'll learn it better, but it's to the point where he can hardly get ahold of his boss, and when he e-mails him, his boss waits until he leaves his desk and then leaves a note for him.
He's not the only one who feels this way; one of his other coworkers feels adrift and suspects their boss likes to travel on business to avoid whatever's going on at home or at least the home office, and has trouble delegating.
I've had bosses who had their own struggles at work before. In the worst case, it cost me my job and then it cost him his (I can't blame him entirely, I wasn't quite ready for a job like that, but some timely mentoring might have made the difference). So let's pray for his boss, too.
And this is weighing on the family as well. Their kids--I'm back on my niece and nephew again--are doing better now than when he and my sister were doing the tag-team job thing where they're only all together about twenty minutes a day, but now my sister is home with the kids instead of being the breadwinner, which she's growing into, but my brother in law isn't used to having to shoulder all the financial responsibility alone. I'm sure there's more going on that I'm just not hearing about, too.
Please pray, also, that he comes back to the church. He's nominally Catholic but is pretty lukewarm; she goes to church every Sunday, but goes alone.
The job he had for most of their marriage was not a well paying one, but they were saving money on day care by him going in to work very early and then coming home shortly before my sister would leave for the closing shift at her store, sort of a tag team arrangement. After a few years it was starting to wear on all of them, with my niece's demeanor changing and my sister getting stress related illnesses.
Finally, last year a former boss of his asked him to apply for a position with his new company, one that sounded like it was created with him in mind. It wasn't everything he hoped, but it was something he seemed well enough suited for him, and they had to make some kind of change, so my sister quit her job and they moved across the country.
A few months later it comes out that his boss seems to have adopted a "sink or swim" policy; he's leaving my brother in law to figure things out on his own, on the grounds that he'll learn it better, but it's to the point where he can hardly get ahold of his boss, and when he e-mails him, his boss waits until he leaves his desk and then leaves a note for him.
He's not the only one who feels this way; one of his other coworkers feels adrift and suspects their boss likes to travel on business to avoid whatever's going on at home or at least the home office, and has trouble delegating.
I've had bosses who had their own struggles at work before. In the worst case, it cost me my job and then it cost him his (I can't blame him entirely, I wasn't quite ready for a job like that, but some timely mentoring might have made the difference). So let's pray for his boss, too.
And this is weighing on the family as well. Their kids--I'm back on my niece and nephew again--are doing better now than when he and my sister were doing the tag-team job thing where they're only all together about twenty minutes a day, but now my sister is home with the kids instead of being the breadwinner, which she's growing into, but my brother in law isn't used to having to shoulder all the financial responsibility alone. I'm sure there's more going on that I'm just not hearing about, too.
Please pray, also, that he comes back to the church. He's nominally Catholic but is pretty lukewarm; she goes to church every Sunday, but goes alone.
