Health Care Concerns: Career Change and Physical Health

I have had 4 physicals in the last 3 years as I have pursued chaplain employment opportunities, having completing Clinical Pastoral Education in August 2002.

It is obvious to me that employers have health care concerns about their employees, at least the companies I have worked for see employee health as a priority concern.

Employer’s Health Care Concerns About Their Employees

On what I call my “Change Career Journey” from being a parish pastor to being a Board Certified Chaplain, I have experience that career change and physical health have been very important to my employers.

And now that I am on the threshold of my 6th decade, I find that health care concerns are important to me too. Maybe it is because of being a health care chaplain, where I work with so many end of life patients or perhaps it is just my own mortality awareness that is kicking in.

Health Care Concerns And My Passion For Successful Career Change

My wife went to her doctor a while back. So what does my wife’s annual checkup have to do with my passion for Purposeful Career Change for Pastors?

Almost everything! As I have discovered, most new employers will require a physical, so physical condition is obviously a concern in the workplace.

As a dedicated preschool director and model preschool teacher at a university lab preschool, she is always lifting some distraught preschooler, not to mention having some child sneeze in her face at the exact moment their faces are next to each others.

But let’s be honest about our heath care fears for family. As a married couple still deeply in love with another after 37 years, we are becoming more aware of our spouse’s mortality as well as our own. I often wonder if it is time for her to choose another career or to find a preschool administrator position that does not require teaching a preschool class.

My wife was relieved that there was nothing major to be concerned about. But then again, who decides if something is or isn’t major!

The Doctor’s Health Care Concerns About My Favorite Preschool Administrator:

Here is a list of the doctor’s health care concerns she expressed to my wife:

1. You have high blood pressure (OK, that’s major.)

2. You need to lose a few pounds (Uh oh! I think WE are going on a diet!)

3. Your cholesterol is at acceptable levels (thanks for saying something nice!)

4. You need to start exercising, like walking several times a week for at least 30 minutes (Hah! Beat you to it because we have started walking 3 times a week).

5. Please see me in April (keeps the economy going).

Why Health Care Concerns Should Be Important To Us

But health should be a concern when it comes to career change. Health care concerns should be important to us for several reasons, from my non-medical perspective as a healthcare chaplain.

Health Fears Impact Pastor Burnout and Leaving The Ministry

First is that how you feel physically does impact how you perceive your present career or job. Lack of sleep, being overweight, loss of stamina and energy all affect how we perform as employees and how we perceive ourselves and our work situation. Getting physically fit could make you fall in love with your present employment situation all over again.

I recently received an email from a fellow pastor, someone my age who attended seminary with me 36 years ago. Note the relationship of physical and mental health to his ministry career (by the way, he gave me permission to quote his comments in my ministry writing endeavors:

We also have had some changes in our lives. Unfortunately, mine involves leaving the ministry. For a number of years I began to deal with depression off and on, and it got worse as I found myself not dealing with the pressures of ministry as well as I would have liked.

In January of 1996 I finally came to the point where I just could not make it to a Sunday service. I resigned at the board meeting the following Tuesday night with no notice. It was a shock to the church. Some people offered to start another church but I had my fill of the ministry and knew I could not help others.

One of my former pastors died of a massive heart attack in his mid fifties, and I was afraid I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown or a heart attack.

Notice the relationship between his health and his decision to leave ministry. By the way, I suggest we quit using the term leaving the ministry or quitting ministry to describe a transition out of a parish pastor career. I think we need to reframe our concept of leaving ministry to that of expanding ministry.

My friend is now in a new career where he is far more effective in serving people in his community. Yet because he is not pastoring a church, he feels meaningless and marginalized. I challenged him to realize he is impacting far more people than before and to think of his new job as a new pulpit to preach from.

Be Physically Fit Wherever You Work

Secondly, all of the reasons to be physically fit for your present situation are also true of a new career or new job within your present career. Having addressed our health care concerns could have impacted a decision to seek a career change in the first place.

Most likely you will need to have another physical for the new employee. The problem with having the doctor tell you all of your ailments and that you are overweight is this: You can’t say “What business is it of yours?”

Being Healthy Involves More Than Just The Physical

Thirdly, health involves more than just the physical body. Mental health, emotional health, relational health, and spiritual health — each of these impacts how we approach our work and how we relate to others.

I have noticed that people skills are seen by employers as of equal or even greater importance than just job skills. Perhaps how a supervisor treats employees should be an indicator of physical health changes or mental health concerns.

What we are talking about here is not only an employees balanced life but a workplace environment that employees enjoy. Employers should be concerned about the impact of a supervisor’s mental health or physical health if the workplace environment deteriorates just because someone refuses to the doctor.

Employers Are Hiring Chaplains To Address Life Concerns In the Markeplace

Health concerns arejust one of the reasons employers are hiring Chaplains within the workplace environment. Helping employees balance their lives and deal effectively with life concerns makes for a more effective work team. The bottom line improves with a Chaplain on the job.

Wow, did I go on a writing binge, just because my wife has her annual physical. But one more question. How come when my wife goes to the doctor, I have get physically fit or go on a diet? Go figure.