In this episode, Dr. Chip Roper, Ken Kinard, and Sarah Evers discuss the predicted increasing frequency and intensity of employee performance reviews. The discussion journeys from the Wall Street Journal's prediction to the Johari Window to our best practices for dealing with a performance review when you get one.

Need Career Coaching?

This is the season when many people reflect on their lives and what needs to change in the new year. Maybe it's time for a new job or a big career shift. But changing jobs can be stressful and time consuming. If you are filling out job applications, waiting to hear back from hiring managers, and it’s going nowhere, then maybe it’s time for a different approach. Or maybe you’re not sure if you should make a move and want help exploring the options. 

Our Career Navigator program is designed to give you clarity, refined messaging, and a plan to make your next career move. For more information, visit https://www.vocacenter.org/careernavigator.

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If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

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• Career Navigator
• Burnout Recovery Program

In this episode, Dr. Chip Roper, Sarah Evers, and Ken Kinard discuss the positive and negative aspects of the current trend of "bringing your whole self to work".

Need Career Coaching?

This is the season when many people reflect on their lives and what needs to change in the new year. Maybe it's time for a new job or a big career shift. But changing jobs can be stressful and time consuming. If you are filling out job applications, waiting to hear back from hiring managers, and it’s going nowhere, then maybe it’s time for a different approach. Or maybe you’re not sure if you should make a move and want help exploring the options. 

Our Career Navigator program is designed to give you clarity, refined messaging, and a plan to make your next career move. For more information, visit https://www.vocacenter.org/careernavigator.

Connect with VOCA

If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center
• Career Navigator

It’s the time of year when our attention naturally turns to gratitude. As the studies on gratitude are becoming more widely circulated in today’s work culture, people are realizing the benefits of this practice. In this episode, Dr. Chip Roper, Sarah Evers, and Ken Kinard discuss turning your Thanks-being into Thanks-giving.

Need Career Coaching?

If your current job is not on your gratitude list, then you might be considering a change. But changing jobs can be stressful and time consuming. If you are filling out job applications, waiting to hear back from hiring managers, and it’s going nowhere, then maybe it’s time for a different approach. Or maybe you’re not sure if you should make a move and want help exploring the options. 

Our Career Navigator program is designed to give you clarity, refined messaging, and a plan to make your next career move. For more information, visit https://www.vocacenter.org/careernavigator.

Connect with VOCA

If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center
• Career Navigator

If you have been following our research at VOCA Center, you know that the top two problems workers are facing this year are being overwhelmed and burned out. So, recently we created a new coaching program to help. It’s called the Burnout Recovery Program.

This program includes assessments, coaching, and access to our learning management system that guides you through the recovery process. To create content for our programs we often invite experts in the field to offer their insight and wisdom. For the Burnout Recovery Program, we feature an interview with Sharon Kinard, a registered nurse, ministry leader, and family therapist.

This episode is a short excerpt from that longer conversation that you get in the program. Sharon covered variety of topics related to burnout and had particular insights into the body, and what it might be telling us about what’s going on in our heads and hearts when we are under stress and approaching the burnout stage.

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If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

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• Give to VOCA Center
• Burnout Recovery Program

There’s a well-established myth out there. It’s woven into the American imagination: Underdogs can come out of nowhere and win. This narrative is fed by a story from the Hebrew Scriptures: David and Goliath. It is common to say, “We are David, and they are Goliath.”

In this episode, Sarah Evers and Ken Kinard reflect on Chip’s article Being the “Underdog” is Overrated. They discuss where this underdog hero image comes from and how a biblical view of the underdog can inform our approach to work. How about you—are you more like Rocky, or Kung-Fu Panda?

Are You Burned Out?

The burnout recovery program is a coaching program that helps you discover if you are burned out, uncover the underlying cause, get your fire back, and prevent burnout from coming back. Learn more at https://www.vocacenter.org/burnoutrecovery/

Connect with VOCA

If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

• Burnout Recovery Program
• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center

At VOCA Center, every year we do research to find out what challenges people find the most vexing in their work, and in the past few years burnout has been at or near the top of that list. 

In this episode Liz Sastre, Chip Roper, and Ken Kinard discussed their own personal experiences with burnout. Maybe you can relate? If you are worn out from work and think you might be burning out, or just want to avoid the problem in the first place, this episode is for you.

Are You Burned Out?

The burnout recovery program is a coaching program that helps you discover if you are burned out, uncover the underlying cause, get your fire back, and prevent burnout from coming back. Learn more at https://www.vocacenter.org/burnoutrecovery/

Connect with VOCA

If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

• Burnout Recovery Program
• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center

This episode is the third of a three-part conversation about Resilient Leadership with David Ridley, the founding CEO of Invesco Real Estate. For several years David has worked with us on the framework we use for helping businesses and organizations thrive in the midst of constant change, competition, and disruption. So, if you lead a team, and you want it to win despite the challenges, this series is for you.

Burnout Recovery Program

We have a solution for people experiencing burnout. If you are experiencing a lack of motivation, decreased job satisfaction, difficulty concentrating, and/or strained relationships, check out the Burnout Recovery program.

Connect with VOCA

If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center

This episode is the second of a three-part conversation about Resilient Leadership with David Ridley, the founding CEO of Invesco Real Estate. For several years David has worked with us on the framework we use for helping businesses and organizations thrive in the midst of constant change, competition, and disruption. So, if you lead a team, and you want it to win despite the challenges, this series is for you.

Burnout Recovery Program

We have a solution for people experiencing burnout. If you are experiencing a lack of motivation, decreased job satisfaction, difficulty concentrating, and/or strained relationships, check out the Burnout Recovery program.

Connect with VOCA

If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center

This episode is the first of a three-part conversation about Resilient Leadership with David Ridley, the founding CEO of Invesco Real Estate. For several years David has worked with us on the framework we use for helping businesses and organizations thrive in the midst of constant change, competition, and disruption. So, if you lead a team, and you want it to win despite the challenges, this series is for you.

Burnout Recovery Program

We have a solution for people experiencing burnout. If you are experiencing a lack of motivation, decreased job satisfaction, difficulty concentrating, and/or strained relationships, check out the Burnout Recovery program.

Connect with VOCA

If you would like to engage with our team at VOCA Center, or would like to partner with us as a donor, let's connect.

• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center

Dr. Chip Roper, Sarah Evers, and Ken Kinard discuss the two most common top dilemmas people face at work. The conversation is based on the research we conduct each year, in which we ask, “What are your greatest challenges and dilemmas in your work life?”

In this episode, the VOCA team processes Dilemma #2: “Overwhelmed" and Dilemma #1: "Burned Out". Discover some techniques that help us cope with feeling overwhelmed and get back into fruitful life and work.

Burnout Recovery Program

We have a solution for people experiencing burnout. If you are experiencing a lack of motivation, decreased job satisfaction, difficulty concentrating, and/or strained relationships, check out the Burnout Recovery program.

• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center

In the final conversation in this series, Greg Brenneman and Dr. Chip Roper discuss truth 4, that God Calls Us to Be Dangerous.

• Burnout Recovery Program
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• Give to VOCA Center

In the third conversation in this series, Greg Brenneman and Dr. Chip Roper discuss truth 3, that for Christians at work, every game is an away game.

• Burnout Recovery Program
• Schedule a Consult
• Give to VOCA Center

In the second conversation in this series, Greg Brenneman and Dr. Chip Roper discuss truth 2, that work is the platform God has given each of us to use to live out our calling.

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Recently Dr. Chip Roper had a conversation about faith and work with Greg Brenneman, on of our advisors at VOCA Center. Greg gives a 4-part framework for thinking about work from a faith perspective. In this first conversation, Greg introduces truth 1, that our work is important to God. He outlines a biblical foundation for work and helps us see that the greatest fulfillment at work comes not from seeking fulfillment, but from something else.

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Dr. Chip Roper, Ken Kinard, and Sarah Evers discuss the latest research on the top dilemmas people are facing at work. The conversation is based on the research VOCA conducts each year, in which we ask, “What are your greatest challenges and dilemmas in your work life?”

In this episode, the VOCA team processes Dilemma #3: “Uncertainty Around My Calling and the Work I'm Gifted to Do".

• Schedule a Consult
• Blog post: The Top 6 Dilemmas Workers Face
• Give to VOCA Center

Dr. Chip Roper, Sarah Evers, and Ken Kinard discuss the latest research on the top dilemmas people are facing at work. The conversation is based on the research VOCA conducts each year, in which we ask, “What are your greatest challenges and dilemmas in your work life?”

In this episode, the VOCA team processes Dilemma #4: “Bringing Redemption to Brokenness at Work”. 

• Schedule a Consult
• Blog post: The Top 6 Dilemmas Workers Face
• Give to VOCA Center

Dr. Chip Roper, Sarah Evers, and Ken Kinard discuss the latest research on the top dilemmas people are facing at work. The conversation is based on the research VOCA conducts each year, in which we ask, “What are your greatest challenges and dilemmas in your work life?”

In this episode, the VOCA team processes Dilemma #5: “Hiring and staffing challenges”.

• Schedule a Consult
• Blog post: The Top 6 Dilemmas Workers Face
• Give to VOCA Center

Updated May 13, 2023

Dr. Chip Roper, Sarah Evers, and Ken Kinard discuss the latest research on the top dilemmas people are facing at work. The conversation is based on the research VOCA conducts each year, in which we ask, “What are your greatest challenges and dilemmas in your work life?”

In this episode, the VOCA team processes Dilemma #6: “Not enjoying or feeling motivated in the work I do.”

• Schedule a Consult
• Blog post: The Top 6 Dilemmas Workers Face
• Give to VOCA Center

Dr. Chip Roper, Ken Kinard, and Sarah Evers discuss how rage seems to be all the rage. “Rage quitting” has now been replaced by “rage applying” where employees fed up with a current employer leave in a huff and apply to a bunch of random jobs using a scatter-shot approach.

With rage quitting, you’ve left without a plan. With rage applying, you’re attempting to leave with a haphazardly found opportunity.

In this episode, VOCA Center coaches discuss a wiser course of action that can get you the next job without becoming one of the 80% who later regret their decisions made out of rage.

• Schedule a Consult
• Blog post: Rage is Overrated
• Give to VOCA Center

Every year, VOCA embarks on two studies to listen to the people we serve. In the Fall, we ask a general audience, “What are your greatest challenges and dilemmas in your work life?”

Why? Our reasoning is captured by the following proverb:

If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. (Proverbs 18:13)

We have embedded systemic listening into our annual rhythm to serve thousands of Christ-followers with timely, winsome counsel.

In this episode, Dr. Chip Roper, Sarah Evers, and Ken Kinard invite you into the processing of our results this year.

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• Blog post: The Top 6 Dilemmas Workers Face
• Give to VOCA Center