To ask a Muslim admin assistant to organise Christams cards

[Goodfrock]

We're a small PR company who sends out lots of Christmas cards. Whether this is worthwhile is up for debate, but the decision has been taken that it will continue for this year at least.

The admin assistant to whom this task falls is a newly appointed Muslim woman I.e
The person in her role has done it previously but it wasn't her last year.

She's not comfortable organising the cards. Was it an unreasonable request? This is very much a genuine question. I'm kicking myself for being insensitive at the same time as thinking it would be daft to get someone more senior to do it.

She is unreasonable.
My lovely Muslim neighbours always send us a Christmas card. The Dad is the local Imam.

Oooh tricky one! As it involves picking the design and things I can see how she might feel uncomfortable.

Ways round it
1 = define it as a non-religious card = 'Seasons greetings' is the message you want to send.
2 = be 'innovative' and send a New Years card instead (my company did this when they... missed the deadlines for getting Christmas cards sent)

Or just suck it up and redistribute the task. Get the design approved by marketing (tbh this is preferred rather than an admin assistant) and ask if she's happy just doing to the posting.

Talk through any other possibly adjustments they might be expecting/needing going forward. Do they want/need another period off as a holiday instead of xmas?

I've had various admin jobs with 'send Christmas and birthday cards' in the JD (which I always laughed at being literally on the JD but maybe now I know why?)- so build it in next time ;)

OK, I've reported the thread myself now, I didn't intend it to descend like this.

YANBU.

I went to school with a couple of Jehovah’s Witness children who weren’t allowed to accept Christmas cards. We all learnt at a very young age not to give them one because they couldn’t accept them. They also don’t celebrate birthdays so couldn’t invite them to birthday parties… The Muslims in our class were fine with Christmas cards though and also handed them out to us.

My Dad and his family are Jewish, my Gran taught in a Catholic primary school for 30+ years and she always handed Christmas cards out to the children and had ones given to her displayed in her home.

My point is that most people are comfortable with Christmas, regardless of whether they believe or not. I’m guessing she isn’t writing them all out? She’s literally just clicking a few buttons on a computer? She needs to get over herself.

You’ve said you’re not racist and you said you’re not anti immigration. Where in the world did anyone accuse you of being those things? It seems like you’re snitching on yourself.

Why have you assumed that she moved to this country? Did you know that anyone can convert to Islam despite the fact that they were born here? Saying someone is an immigrant because they’re Muslim is so fucked it’s unbelievable

I don't think it's unreasonable for you to ask given that there's a wide range of practices within religions and can depend on personal beliefs, but I don't think they are unreasonable for refusing either. Many Muslims won't participate in anything that's related to the practice of other religions such as religious holidays which is what Christmas is. Similarly some Christians won't engage in anything related to other religious practices such as yoga for example. It works both ways and people have the right to practice their faith how they see fit provided its not encroaching on the welfare and human rights of another person.

I'd give to to someone else or as others have stated switch to ecards that can be sent in bulk online using your client database.

Sorry but she is being ridiculous. The Christmas cards aren't from her personally, they're from her employer. Does she think that all the Muslims in this country working in retail can refuse to sell stuff because they don't celebrate Christmas.
If she'd said "I might need a bit of help choosing the appropriate cards as it's not something I know much about but I'll be happy to process them" then I might have had more sympathy.

It is on behalf of a business, not her personally, so her personal reflection on Christmas should be kept personal.

I have numerous Muslim and Hindu colleagues who send round their own Christmas cards! She is being oversensitive IMO. If she's vegetarian, would she object to collecting the Christmas party menus if it is for meat?

She's an admin assistant and you're giving her an admin task. You're asking her to organise a stationery order (effectively), not start preaching the gospel to anyone that calls!

She’s being UR

The Twat Signal went up.

I would take this as a sign that she isn't that bothered about the job really.

I think she's being unreasonable to refuse to do a admin based PR task as that's her job, from what you are saying?

Sadly I think employment law might be on her side.

I agree with this.

I also think it's better not to bother at all. Arrange a charity donation instead and tell (not ask) her to do it.

I don't like troll-hunters but I think this is a made up scenario though because I don't think anyone working and living in the UK would object to sending out Christmas cards as part of their job. A lot of non Christians have Christmas trees etc and sending cards is a secular thing.

Nobody is asking her to celebrate baby Jesus...

Is that not exactly what Christmas is?

Some of these posts are so wildly stupid it's laughable.

I've worked with many, many Muslim and Jewish colleagues and none of them have ever had a problem with things like this. Our last Christmas do was organised by a Muslim office manager, in fact. There were a couple of things she wanted to check with us (eg did we think the menu was Christmassy enough, because she didn't know a huge amount about exactly what a Christmas dinner would typically entail other than turkey, and she also checked booze options because she doesn't drink) but she was perfectly happy to organise it.

Could you or someone else choose the message/design and she just deal with ordering and sending side of things?

Do not go to the warning route suggested by others unless you want your company to feature in a test case.

Of course Christmas cards are a tradition here in Britain, Minnie. I'm not a Christian and have sent and received thousands in my lifetime.

Everyone knows Christmas exists. I called the poster a dick because of the very clear islamophobia in that post. Letting someone go if they were still on probation because they don’t want to design and send out Christmas cards due to their beliefs? If you agree with that then guess what, you’re also a dick

I have Muslim friends/colleagues who are happy to take part in events for Christmas; bring their DC to our Christmas party, attend local musical events we host for the elderly etc. One friend suggested starting a secret Santa last year. I think your admin assistants' problem will be with selecting the appropriate items, otherwise she is being unreasonable.

Why can it only be you or her? Are you also in the admin department or are you the boss boss?

If the latter, surely there's someone in between you and her who could do it?

I honestly think you're better off going with e-cards and getting one of your designers to do them. They're cheaper and you can donate the difference to charity, or just use it to boost your P&L! :-)

How irritating. You are 100 percent not being unreasonable. Good grief, your admin assistant sounds very precious.

With your update, I can sort of see her point. You are not asking her to perform a purely administrative task, which would definitely be reasonable, but in fact you are asking her to suggest the design and messaging on an event that is not part of her culture.

If I took a job in India, I wouldn’t want to be in charge of, say, any Diwali related “messaging” on behalf of the company but I would of course be happy to carry out any set admin tasks.

Out of curiosity @Harella do you think jehovas witnesses or any of the many other British people who live in the UK who refuse to participate in Christmas on religious grounds should go elsewhere? Or is your racism just showing?

Bloody hell op, bit of a drip feed!

So it's not just sticking cards in envelopes and printing some labels off, it's the whole shebang - choosing cards would be a toughie for someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas due to their religion (not just your average atheist, but someone who really doesn't understand the whole thing, never mind the potential challenges of getting the tone of business cards just right).

I was going to say YABU but I think I would decline a request to source Divali cards, or Eid cards (sorry, not sure they're a thing, do you see my point?)

Get someone to make a decision about buying them and the message printed inside, THEN ask the admin assistant to do the admin stuff.

This sort of corporate bollocks should be a senior decision rather than putting it all on the admin team. I'd be tempted to send cheery cartoon cards as a suggestion....