在泰森食品公司(Tyson Foods)，如果员工们遇到一些他们可能不愿与主管上司讨论的问题，他们有另外的倾诉对象——公司牧师。

“我们在美国、加拿大和墨西哥共有125位牧师，多数为兼职，”泰森食品公司牧师服务主管艾伦•泰森(Alan Tyson)表示，“他们就在我们的办公场所，提供着实用且贴身的牧师服务。”

在美国，公司牧师服务是一项巨大业务。Corporate Chaplains of America和Marketplace Chaplains USA等组织拥有数以千计的牧师，在全国的工厂和办公室提供牧师关怀服务。

“我们这个组织是在1984年由一位军队牧师创建的，他知道他的工作对军人们会有多大帮助，”Marketplace Chaplains USA国际牧师服务副总裁丹•特鲁伊特(Dan Truitt)表示，“然后，他将目光转向企业，发现那里需要这种服务。”他举例指出，牧师们曾对员工家人提供过医疗帮助，甚至曾主办过葬礼。

尽管不像美国这样普及，但英国也有公司牧师。迈克•科利(Mike Coley)神父就是其中之一。“我的工作基本上就是与人交流，”他表示，“下至普通员工，上至高层管理人员，人们发现他们可以向我敞开心扉。我会倾听他们在人际关系、家庭以及子女方面的问题。有些故事令人心碎。”但这份工作也有较为轻松的一面。他补充说：“我最近促成了一桩婚事。”

在英国，牧师服务似乎不太常见，但在美国，牧师们经常被派往公司，并且会根据员工的需要定期前往。他们与员工和管理人员建立了融洽的关系，并让他们知道，如果他们需要找人谈话，牧师就在身边。

牧师并非接受牧师服务的公司的员工，这赋予了他们可信赖的中立地位。公司一般会向牧师组织支付一笔费用（在美国，每位员工每年最高20美元），这些组织再付钱给牧师。多数牧师为基督徒，但也有些牧师信仰其它宗教。牧师们通常会接受一些正式的培训，但这不是主要的。

泰森表示：“我们真正寻找的是那些有牧师心怀、关心他人的人。”

兰卡斯特大学管理学院(Lancaster University Management School)组织心理和健康学教授卡里•库珀(Cary Cooper)表示，这种观念既不新鲜，也不是美国所特有的。他表示：“在英国，40年前就有公司牧师了。我们现在所做的一切就是复兴这一工作。”他补充称，工作不安全感、长时间工作以及工作压力可能意味着公司牧师的时代已经再次来临。

那些聘用牧师的公司收到了明显的成效：总体而言，那些找到倾诉对象的员工们心情更加愉快了。“我们最近开始聘用迈克•科利(Mike Coley)，”总部位于布里斯托尔的Metal Centre总经理克里斯•梅里德斯(Chris Merideth)表示，“最初曾有过‘为什么要这样'的疑问。但如今，人们希望看到他，人们明白他们可以向他敞开心扉。”除了担任牧师以外，科利还具有工程师背景，因此人们并不认为他是一位不切实际的理想主义者。梅里德斯认为，这一点很有帮助。

特鲁伊特认为，英国的办公场所可能很快就会出现更多的牧师，Marketplace Chaplains正考虑在英国设立一个姊妹机构。

他表示：“我们仍处在探索阶段，但我们参观过英国，我们知道人们对此很感兴趣。但我们不会把自己移植过去。它应该是由英国人管理的一个英国组织。”

在英国，有些人担心牧师可能会改变普通人的信仰。但牧师们坚持表示，他们不是传教士，只有在员工提出来的情况下，他们才会与之讨论信仰问题。

他们表示，如果这位员工信仰其它宗教，需要的话，他们会很乐意为他们找到一位友好的拉比（犹太教）或阿訇（伊斯兰教）。“我们绝不鼓动人改变宗教信仰，在这一点上，我们相当谨慎，”特鲁伊特表示，“如果那样，那不是优秀的业务，也不的宗教。”

Employees　at Tyson Foods experiencing the kind of problems they might not want to take to their line managers have someone else they can approach – the corporate chaplain.

"We have 125 chaplains, mostly part-time, working in the US, Canada and Mexico," says Alan Tyson, director of chaplaincy services. "They are out in the workplace providing a ministry of availability and presence."

Corporate chaplaincy is big business in the US. Organisations such as Corporate Chaplains of America and Marketplace Chaplains USA, which provide pastoral care in the nation's factories and offices, have thousands of chaplains on their books.

"Our organisation was founded in 1984 by a military chaplain, who had seen how helpful he could be to military folk," says Dan Truitt, vice-president of international ministries at Marketplace Chaplains USA. "Then he looked at private business and found a need there." He cites occasions in which chaplains have found medical help for workers' families or even conducted funerals.

Although nowhere near as widespread as in the US, there are corporate chaplains in the UK, too. Reverend Mike Coley is one. "Basically, I'm there for people to talk to," he says. "People from the shopfloor to senior management find they can open up to me. I hear about relationships, family, problems with children. Some of the stories are heartbreaking." But there is a lighter side to the work. "I married one couple recently," he adds.

Chaplaincy in the UK tends to be ad hoc but, in the US, chaplains are normally assigned to the company and appear regularly, depending on employee needs. They build a rapport with staff and management and let them know that, if they need to talk, a chaplain is available.

Chaplains are not employees of the companies to which they minister, giving them a trusted, neutral status. Typically, the company will pay a fee - in the US, up to $20 an employee a year - to the organisation, which then pays the chaplain. Most are Christian, but some are from other faiths too. Chaplains tend to have some formal training, but this is not essential.

"What we are really looking for is someone with a pastor's heart to care for folks," Mr Tyson says.

Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School, says the concept is neither new nor American. "We had corporate chaplains 40 years ago in the UK. All we are doing is reviving this," he says, adding that job insecurity, long hours and stress could mean the time for corporate chaplains had come again.

Those who use them point to obvious benefits: the workforce that has someone to talk to about its problems is generally happier. "We have recently started using Mike Coley," says Chris Merideth, general manager of the Bristol-based Metal Centre. "At first there was a bit of 'What's all this?' But now people expect to see him and know they can talk openly with him." He thinks it helps that, as well as being a minister, Coley has a background in engineering and so is not seen as a woolly do-gooder.

Mr Truitt thinks the UK could soon be seeing more chaplains in the workplace, with Marketplace Chaplains considering setting up a sister organisation.

"We are still in the exploratory phase, but we have visited the UK and we know that people are interested. But we wouldn't transplant ourselves. It would have to be a UK organisation led by UK people," he says.

Some people in the UK get a little uncomfortable at the prospect of proselytising on the shopfloor and conversions in the canteen. But the chaplains insist that they are not missionaries and will only discuss matters of faith if the employee brings them up.

Should that person be of another faith, they say, they would be happy to find them a friendly rabbi or imam if required. "We're careful never to push religion," Mr Truitt says. "That's not good business, and it's not good religion."