Compartmentalising business

[Josh]

BA wrote:

This is a whole other discussion but they tend to compartmentalize there lives with "business" coming under a different set of standards that the rest of their lives. This idea is not exclusive to W-F

Let’s talk about this.

[Josh]

I myself do this quite a bit. There’s a whole range of things I avoid or wouldn’t be caught dead doing, except when definitely a good idea for business purposes. An obvious one is photography. Another one is attendance at sporting events or events with a lot of alcohol.

[Wade]

I myself do this quite a bit. There’s a whole range of things I avoid or wouldn’t be caught dead doing, except when definitely a good idea for business purposes. An obvious one is photography. Another one is attendance at sporting events or events with a lot of alcohol.

As a newcomer we couldn't understand when we seen this... I wonder if sometimes we appear and actually treat and act like work is more important than our wife and children and our church and our beliefs and God when this happens? And yes that is what it looked like from the outside. Please don't think I am try accuse or judge here as much as I was trying to understand what was going on with people we were trying to join and this side of it was so very confusing.

[Josh]

I myself do this quite a bit. There’s a whole range of things I avoid or wouldn’t be caught dead doing, except when definitely a good idea for business purposes. An obvious one is photography. Another one is attendance at sporting events or events with a lot of alcohol.

As a newcomer we couldn't understand when we seen this... I wonder if sometimes we appear and actually treat and act like work is more important than our wife and children and our church and our beliefs and God when this happens? And yes that is what it looked like from the outside. Please don't think I am try accuse or judge here as much as I was trying to understand what was going on with people we were trying to join and this side of it was so very confusing.

It’s very confusing. But it makes sense.

The heart attitude of what I do in my spare time and for fun is different from what I do because I need to earn a living.

I don’t think God wants me to take a lot of selfies and post photos of myself all over the place.

But when my employer needs a picture of me so they can identify me, that serves a different purpose, and is much less of a temptation to vanity and pride.

[ohio jones]

There’s a whole range of things I avoid or wouldn’t be caught dead doing, except when definitely a good idea for business purposes.

That logic could be used to justify quite a few questionable practices. Certainly there are times when preferences can be set aside for reasons of necessity, business or non-business. But transgressing personal convictions or brotherhood expectations seems to be a violation of integrity, and potentially very dangerous.

[Josh]

There’s a whole range of things I avoid or wouldn’t be caught dead doing, except when definitely a good idea for business purposes.

That logic could be used to justify quite a few questionable practices. Certainly there are times when preferences can be set aside for reasons of necessity, business or non-business. But transgressing personal convictions or brotherhood expectations seems to be a violation of integrity, and potentially very dangerous.

What if the brotherhood expectations have guidelines for what is okay for business purposes which is also not okay when purely for personal recreation/pleasure?

For example, in my case, photography.

[Biblical Anabaptist]

There’s a whole range of things I avoid or wouldn’t be caught dead doing, except when definitely a good idea for business purposes.

That logic could be used to justify quite a few questionable practices. Certainly there are times when preferences can be set aside for reasons of necessity, business or non-business. But transgressing personal convictions or brotherhood expectations seems to be a violation of integrity, and potentially very dangerous.

What if the brotherhood expectations have guidelines for what is okay for business purposes which is also not okay when purely for personal recreation/pleasure?

For example, in my case, photography.

It has been tried but it is not very effective. (1) sometimes there is a fine line between what is business and what is personal (2) It results in two sets of standards within the brotherhood.- those with businesses and those who do not have businesses.

The question then comes, how big does an enterprise need to be to be considered a business?

[Josh]

Okay, at least with how we do things, actions on behalf of your employer are part of “for business” (within reason).

You are right that it does start to make arbitrary divisions. For example, massive wealth in a business seems to be a lot more acceptable than personal wealth, generally speaking.

[Valerie]

That logic could be used to justify quite a few questionable practices. Certainly there are times when preferences can be set aside for reasons of necessity, business or non-business. But transgressing personal convictions or brotherhood expectations seems to be a violation of integrity, and potentially very dangerous.

What if the brotherhood expectations have guidelines for what is okay for business purposes which is also not okay when purely for personal recreation/pleasure?

For example, in my case, photography.

It has been tried but it is not very effective. (1) sometimes there is a fine line between what is business and what is personal (2) It results in two sets of standards within the brotherhood.- those with businesses and those who do not have businesses.

The question then comes, how big does an enterprise need to be to be considered a business?

In the Amish world, this happens- they will have a telephone in their business but they are not allowed telephones in the home. Some Amish owned businesses have computers, but they would not be allowed computers at home. We can see the logic behind these decisions- and therefore it really doesn't seem like a double standard.

[ohio jones]

There’s a whole range of things I avoid or wouldn’t be caught dead doing, except when definitely a good idea for business purposes.

That logic could be used to justify quite a few questionable practices. Certainly there are times when preferences can be set aside for reasons of necessity, business or non-business. But transgressing personal convictions or brotherhood expectations seems to be a violation of integrity, and potentially very dangerous.

What if the brotherhood expectations have guidelines for what is okay for business purposes which is also not okay when purely for personal recreation/pleasure?

For example, in my case, photography.

If the expectations have exceptions, there's no transgression. As I recall, you mentioned an exception for identification (such as driver's license and passport) that wasn't particularly business-related; employee ID seems like it would fit that category.

Banning attendance at sporting events and then making an exception for business, though, wouldn't make much sense to me. Either it's important to avoid them, or it isn't.

But I can see a distinction between things one is required to do as an employee, and decisions a business owner makes.