The 7 Hills Worth Dying On (at Work)

The Employee's Guide to Retaining Integrity and Maintaining Dignity

Gene Strother

Jul 01, 2025

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-7:47

In a world of compromise and confusion about what matters most, Jesus posed two questions to his followers that we can apply to our personal employee handbook:

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? -Gospel of Mark 8:36, Berean Study Bible

Soul-Suckers, Inc

I once managed a rent-to-own store in Dallas. The premise is to make the dream of owning furniture, electronics, or other creature comforts even if they are not in your budget. come true Want a big screen TV but have a 24” screen budget? No worries. Just sign on the dotted line and promise to pay weekly, and this gorgeous big screen can fill up your tiny living space.

No one told the customer the goal was to get “five turns” on most items. That is, make five times the cost of the item by the time it has either been written off or paid off. Things disappear in that industry, so risk is written into the formula.

Half of the business was to push the product out the door; the other half was to repossess it. Sell it again if you can get it back. Write it off if you cannot.

I blew out my back repossessing a side-by-side refrigerator from a third-floor apartment. Two staff members called out sick that day. It fell to me to get the item while the getting was good, before it disappeared forever. I removed the fridge by myself, just me and a trusty two-wheel dolly.

I discovered the difference between a herniated and a ruptured disc that day. Multiply “herniated” by ten and you get “ruptured”.

A ruptured disc is not the main reason I never returned to the job after back surgery. The reason was deeper than that. It vexed my “righteous” soul to work in such a predatory industry, to lure people whose reach was greater than their grasp into contracts doomed to crush them. It is a disgusting business, in my view. I compromised my integrity and self-respect each time I unlocked that front door and switched on the “OPEN” sign.

I promised myself I would not do that again. I would not prey on people to feather my nest.

I call these vocations “soul suckers.” They require one to lay aside principles, alter morals, or equivocate. They are spiritual vampires, sucking the lifeblood from the soul to satisfy the lust of the flesh, or to simply keep the lights on and the mortgage paid.

One can justify selling one’s soul when the wolf is at the door. Like Esau of old, people sell themselves out for a “mess of pottage” every day. A person must “get by”. There are mouths to feed, bills to pay, and principles be damned. So, they brush their teeth, reassess their values, or slip them into the drawer and leave them behind altogether, and head off to sell their souls for sustenance.

Considering the compromises often required to remain gainfully employed, what ground must we never give? What hills must we defend against all soul-suckers, even the ones wagging paychecks?

The Seven Hills, or The Employee’s Soul-Saving Manifesto

Hill Number One: I will not lie for a paycheck.

If my employer makes dishonesty a requisite of my employment, I will find somewhere else to be and something else to do.

Hill Number Two: I will not manipulate vulnerable people for profit.

This was my problem with the rent-to-own world. Vulnerable people living on slim margins were manipulated into signing devastatingly unfair contracts.

Hill Number Three: I will not stay silent when someone is being exploited.

In a dog-eat-dog, every-man-for-himself environment, it is rare to find the person willing to speak up when someone is being exploited. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was such a person.

She was a pediatrician in Flint, Michigan when she started noticing something alarming—lead levels were rising in her young patients. Not a few. Many. Too many.

The city had switched its water source to save money, and complaints about foul-smelling, brown water were dismissed or deflected by officials. But Dr. Hanna-Attisha saw the toll it was taking—not in theory, but in the blood of children who trusted her with their care.

She didn’t look away. She didn’t shrug and say, “That’s above my pay grade.”

She dug in, ran the tests herself, and took the results public—loudly, persistently, and at great personal and professional risk. Government agencies tried to discredit her. They called her “irresponsible,” said her science was flawed, her methods reckless.

But she didn’t back down. Because children were being poisoned, and she refused to be silent.

Eventually, the state admitted the truth. A federal emergency was declared. Infrastructure repairs were ordered. Lives were protected. Why? Because one woman decided that silence was not an option.

Hill Number Four: I will not work in a place that expects dishonesty, even subtly.

This is a tough one. Much of advertisement amounts to subtle misrepresentations, and some are downright blatant.

Remember Red Bull’s slogan, “Red Bull gives you wings”? It wasn’t a literal lie, but it implied benefits the drink couldn’t deliver. The company paid $13 million in a class-action settlement for misleading advertising.

Imagine being the copywriter who wrote that slogan. That person was celebrated…for a while. What a catchy phrase! What a fine way to make a punchy promise. Just wasn’t true, you know?

Subtle distortion isn’t harmless. When your job asks you to stretch the truth, even slightly, it asks you to compromise your integrity. That’s a hill worth dying on.

Hill Number Five: I will not trade truth for security.

The American patriot Patrick Henry declared, “Give me liberty or give me death!”

How sad to see generations later the America his generation sacrificed their lives and fortunes to establish values nothing more than security. We cry, “Give me security, give me comfort, give me a paycheck…give me, give me, give me. I will sacrifice the truth. I will abandon principles. I will lay down my sword and shield. Give me. Give me. Give me.”

Hill Number Six: I will not sacrifice my family for the company.

How foolish is it to lose the very ones you set out to provide for? What then? Ask not how much midnight oil you must burn. Ask for whom, and at what cost. I honor those willing to pay the price of long hours and hard work to do the best they can for the people they love. I pity the fool who loses sight of his why while complying with every demand.

Hill Number Seven: I will not wear a mask so long that I forget my real face.

There is no place like the workplace for putting on airs. We see it all over LinkedIn—people declaring they “love” this or “love” doing that because it makes them look locked in. They wear the mask so well and so long, they confuse it with their own face. They regurgitate business lines until they have no voice of their own.

Final Analysis: Be Loyal, Be Valuable, Be Careful

Be loyal to your employer so long as nothing dishonest or soul-crushing is required in that loyalty. Give an honest day’s labor for an honest wage, and then some! Go beyond. Do more than is required. Make yourself an invaluable asset. Make it clear you give your best to the work given you. You bring insight and ingenuity. You bring elbow grease and intestinal fortitude. Dig in. Do your part.

Just don’t sell your soul. Regardless of the price, you will have been cheated.