Boss told me off for exclaiming Jesus Christ

[GloMum]

The other day my boss told me off for exclaiming Jesus Christ when I was surprised during a work meeting. Boss told me it’s rude towards people from different religions and asked me if I’d done my DEI training. I have, and I enjoy friendships with colleagues from varied backgrounds. I feel really stressed now in case I slip again, and embarrassed I should be told off.

YABU - This is an inappropriate exclamation at work
YANBU - It’s just an exclamation and you shouldn’t be told off for that.

We are very fond of our Jeee-sus/Jesus Christ/Holy God/Sweet Holy Jeez type exclamations in NI. I am an atheist and use all of these frequently. But I would never, ever use any of them in a professional setting. I seem to be able to catch myself on, as we like to say here, when it comes to the very real prospect of pissing people off. Some phraseology doesn't belong in the workplace. I don't think it SHOULD be a massive deal. It just is sometimes.

I think what's most offensive is that it's ok to take the pods out of the Christian lord this way but not any other. None of it is ok. I can accept it slips out and not get offended so long as a person isn't trying to offend. But the effort not to offend a Christian is minimal compared to trying not to offend other religions. All faiths and those without faith deserve respect and not to be intentionally offended

That's only for when you're really surprised.

I don’t think most Irish people would regularly use the sort of language pp mentioned (oh for fucks sake’, ‘jesus christ’, ‘bloody hell’, ‘c*nt’, ‘wanker’ or any other expletive) when in a meeting with their boss actually? Nobody I know does anyway. Quite a bit more professional than that.

Where are you getting your numbers from? The 'vast majority'? I don't think you can back that up.

That’s not the case though. As I said earlier in the thread, my home country has the Islamic version, due to the influence of the Ottoman Empire. The UK’s common vernacular was and is shaped by cultural Christian heritage, and as such reflects that.

The idea that ‘this only happens to Christians!’ is incorrect.

That's a bit of a drip feed!

If the meeting was just the two of you his reaction is pathetic.

Him saying he will smack you on the other hand is outrageously inappropriate!

I voted YABU purely because I don't think it's particularly appropriate language for the workplace. Too casual and too close to swearing.

If you'd have said fucking hell how would he have reacted??

In most professional workplaces people don’t curse, swear and utter expletives

It wouldn’t bother me personally but I can see how it might bother others. For that reason only, I think it’s best to stick with the classics, i suggest:

1. Oh fiddlesticks
2. Bah humbug seasonally of course
3. Ahh flapdoodles!!!

Or my favourite…SHITE!!

It's blasphemy, taking the Lords name in vain. Generally the tone also causes offence as well.

We don't have blasphemy laws here, thank goodness.

But surely that is the person saying it not the person hearing it. If the person saying it isn’t religious then they aren’t taking the lord’s name in vain as they don’t believe. Should the person hearing it have the right to say to the person saying it that they are bound by the 10 commandments?

The only analogy I can think is it is like someone coming from another country and telling you off for breaking a law that is illegal in their country but not your own and expecting you to be arrested. It makes no sense.

Would have been useful to say that in the first place. It’s a bit different if it was just you and your boss, and if you normally speak informally, but very much depends on what language you normally use together. Do you swear in front of each other, for example? Nevertheless, I still find it unprofessional to use an exclamation like that at work.

Yes, I was just wondering how he’d react if a Muslim said El hamdulillah! (Sp) - - thanks be to God! - which we heard so often while living in Muslim countries.

Having said that, though, I don’t think Jesus Christ! is suitable for the workplace.

How about using Boris Johnson’s Crikey!! - and see who cringes at that. 😂

Everyone saying it’s offensive or they’re offended by certain words - I implore you to watch this video because it articulates my point better than I ever could

It does make me wince, as a Christian, as I don’t like Jesus’ name to be used in that way. But I would never pull someone up on it, as I understand that the person uttering the phrase isn’t doing it to cause offence to me. It’s become a cultural thing now.

Just because something is no longer illegal (it still is NI), it doesn't mean that it can't be offensive. I am an atheist but still prefer to choose language to minimise causing offence to others. Being polite costs me nothing.

Well I wouldn’t use it either, in a formal situation but the word ‘blasphemy’ seems way over the top now. CofE, very, very lapsed. Atheist probably.

Unfortunately people have been murdered because of it in this day and age.

I refer you to my point upthread. I reckon that in an effort to ensure the upstart cult gained no traction, an undercover rival from another cult managed to sneak in a bit saying that your aren't a real Christian unless you go around telling everyone else that they should be a Christian - Matthew 28:19-20. (A bit like the way the modern vegan movement must have been infiltrated by carnivores).

Sadly the tactic underestimated the capacity of humans to put up with "anything for a quiet life" and a couple of millennia and countless internecine wars, here we are.

We do actually. Don't be so ethnocentric, it's offensive

Not to me it’s not and I’ll continue to use it. I don’t really care about offending religious people

"Imagine getting offended by blasphemy in this day and age"

Like a PP I'm from Northern Ireland. I started off Presbyterian but long ago lapsed into atheism. My workplace is quite good naturedly sweary (in the back, NOT in front of the clients) but I was brought up not to blaspheme and still try to refrain from doing it. There are a few proper church going staff members- including young ones in more junior positions than me - and I don't want to make them feel awkward. They wouldn't say anything but that's not the point.

People can be offended by whatever they like - their choice.

People can judge people for whatever they get offended about - their choice.

For myself, there is so much more to be "offended" about in life than a series of sounds evolved over thousands of generations to convey a nebulous and arcane concept of some sort of partisan deity that somehow directs human affairs. You may as well be offended by the colour shoes your local priest wears, or what your neighbour had for dinner last night. That's the level of "offence" it deserves.

Poverty ? Homelessness ? Violence against minorities ? These things offend me far more that what Bob just said.