This Ramadan fasting ...[title edited by MNHQ]

[Wuldric]

I have a talented and lovely junior who happens to be Muslim. In the last month she has recorded 6 days off sick, and left work early on three additional occasions as she has fainted.

I don't have any personal bias against any form of religion. Well that's not actually true. Being an atheist, I am biased against all forms of religion, But I am balanced against all of them equally IYSWIM. Lest you all accuse me of xenophobia or something, I am not white and was not born in the UK. I am just impatient with this.

She has no weight to spare to start with. She cannot eat until after dusk. Dusk is pretty late in the UK in summertime. So in the evening she eats at 10. She is supposed to eat before dawn rises although my suspicion is that she is skipping this meal, because in her home it takes place at 3am. She is not allowed so much as a drink of water in between times. The offices are airconditioned, but her home and her journey to work are not.

This fasting tomfoolery is making my lovely junior ill. She looks like a famine victim - her face is just gaunt. It is not good for her. AIBU to think this is all nonsense?

Wuldric I don't think you come across as racist. In fact in your OP you do across as genuinely concerned about your colleague.

OP - I have been watching this thread with genuine interest.

As Baking said, I don't feel you came across as being prejudiced against Islam.

I understand where you are coming from.

I'm agnostic, very much so. I could be considered atheist by some. I find all organised religion to be nonsensical and am fairly sure if Harry Potter had been written (by man not by God or prophets) that there would be a significant religious group worshipping "Our Lord/Prophet Harry".

Re you colleagues health, clearly she is not up to this fasting physically and has suffered for it. I can understand why you are concerned.

I must admit that I live in an area where the majority of Muslims in the city live and in the main everybody has seemed fine during Ramadan. If slightly tetchy (I would be too!).

Wuldric has had the title changed and has embraced the information she has gleaned from this thread as many posters probably have.

On the reverse, maybe muslims may have learned that, how do people know stuff when they haven't been taught.

Anybody wanna know about Catholicism? No, I thought not

The thread is surely about how to deal with someone not performing 100% at the job they are paid to do.

In my local supermarket the muslim woman on the checkout doesn't throw up her hands in horror if someone buys bacon. She uses an extra bag over her hand so she doesn't touch it. It is an efficient solution, gets the job done, no fuss.

The OP's junior should be able to get her job done with no fussing, fainting or absences. If she wants time off, she should use her annual leave like others on this thread do.

What if someone started a thread about Jewish people? I don't think you would be slagging off their religion in the same way. I have a new cooker and it has endless remote control functions for a Friday. Personally I can't really get my head around that, seems a bit silly but then I don't know anything about it. I do think that if I posted a thread saying isn't it ridiculous my new oven (from the US) has remote control Friday features, I would, rightly, be flamed and probably deleted. Just saying...

EVERYONE is lax in the run up to Christmas. But you aren't starting a thread asking why people don't use annual leave rather than spending the morning puking up last night's egg nog.

Wuldric, you normally come across as measured and reasonable. Your OP makes you sound like a twat. Soz.

The NHS trust I used to work in had an informal policy where Muslims took leave at Ramadan/EID and covered Christmas in a kind of swapsies. It worked really well, especially at Eid when people wanted to be with their families. It meant that others could choose not to be on call over Christmas meaning both had quality time with their families when and if they wanted it at religious times. (although most who took off Christmas were not Christian of course)

I think the suggestion upthread to give people 8 flexible bank holidays a year is a great idea. People who want to be off at Eid or Ramadan can be, and anyone who is not fussed Christmas can work if they want to.

Where I work they use this to monitor staff sick days. Most Muslims who fast during Ramadan do get priority for holiday leave though. Personally I think this method is harsh but it is absolutely fair, you couldn't be accused of racism if you implemented it at your work place.

You do sound more concerned about her welfare, if she is struggling so much with Ramadan then she really should have booked some of it off as holiday leave so she can rest at home & not have to travel. Maybe talk about this with her for next year?

That's interesting. We do have flexible working in place but it's harder for juniors to make the most of this as (a) their work is smaller and more bitty and dependent on frequent contact with others and (b) they feel less empowered. I did suggest on a couple of occasions that she might want to work from home/arrive later to avoid hot commutes etc.

Stop reading the Daily Mail and read back before you post to make sure you have expressed yourself in a reasonable way.

I work for an Islamic company and we are not allowed to call people "juniors", it was outlawed years ago along with "teaboy".

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5eBT6OSr1TI#at=151

Have a great Eid tomorrow to the people fasting, you are very brave, well done.

Thanks redandblack. Really excited about Eid. Got to do the shopping, clean, decorate for kids party, fill room with balloons for kids surprise in the morning, wrap presents, send eid cards, go pick up huge cake and then start prepping food for tomorrow! Dont know how i will do it all - serves me right for leaving it until the last minute.

Op, i get what you are saying about you being indifferent to which religion it is, but is it really neccessary to be so insulting about any religion? You can express sentiments without being offensive. I hope this thread has gne some way towards helping you understand why Ramadan is important to muslims and hope your colleague will be ok.

OP, Eid Mubarak to you.

Haven't read the whole thread, but as a muslim wanted to add my two cents. OP the woman you are referring to probably shouldn't be fasting anyway if it is making her ill (and I would imagine that fainting several times per day is considered ill) as it is not intended to cause us harm. We are fasting 20 hour days and it has been fine, even in the heat, in fact my 8 year old insisted that she wanted to start this year.

Eid Mubarak to everyone :-)

Actually as a matter in point, according to the jurisprudence of fasting, your fast breaks when you faint.

Is it definitely Eid tomorrow? Is it to do with someone actually seeing the new moon, or with definite predictions about when there is a new moon? Or something else? Easter confuses me too. I can never remember how its date is calculated.

Anyway, however and whenever, I hope all the Muslims here have a wonderful Eid.

It is worrying.

I have a Muslim friend in Egypt, hes an airplane engineer, its so hot there, and hes not even allowed water.

How scary that he works on something that holds hundreds of people's lives, when his concentration mustnt be 100% :(

Loopy have you shared your concerns with your 'friend'?

I don't recall any plane crashes/accidents being the fault of mozlamic fasting aeronautical engineers/pilots either.

No, nor in Doha. The reduced working hours probably help. All of the secrity staff here are Muslim, Doha airport is a huge transfer hub, ditto they don't seem to have made any mistakes.

Hang on, no need to get shirty, I wasn't being down on my friend or any other Muslim, I was simply expressing concern because I know I wouldn't be able to concentrate in extreme heat with no water.

You have to be so careful what you say on here, always someone waiting to jump on you.

What happens to holiday shifts when Ramadan falls over the end of December? Especially in the Southern hemisphere?

Well presumably in a civilised organisation, it is shared.

Actually second Eid fell over Christmas when i lived in Dubai, the shifts were shared, mainly the Westerners wanted the evenings or nights as Christmas dinner and family stuff was in the day and the locals wanted the evenings off as that was their special time. It was ok.