Religion in the workplace

[Whatothink]

For the last month we have been sent messages email, background screens and management briefings for a particular religion.

the following messages to

”showing visible support,
encouraging meaningful conversations, and deepening our understanding of the experiences of those of observences”

as well as being told to be considered with meetings etc and thoughtful and supportive!!!

Their Muslim colleague isn’t going to rub their nose in their celebration. The birthday colleague could buy their colleagues a drink after work or a nice coffee, it doesn’t have to be cake.

Well that wouldn't involve Muslim colleagues either would it?

So no Christmas decs for you this year nor any mentions of Easter eggs.

No, it wouldn’t be rubbing their nose in it either - which was the point I was making. 🙄

So you are OK with not inviting people of a certain religion then?

I’m OK with inviting them for a drink, it’s their decision whether they accept or not. You’re arguing against yourself now.

Will you be as offended when the Christians start banging on about lent?

Zero But I think i have the right to work without some religion that treats women like shit and says gay people should be killed being pushed onto me

No, but why would you want people to start a conversation about Lent etc as in the email, it isn't of interest to many people

The reason it is PC/virtue signalling etc is because it is selective. It's very clearly not simply coming from a place of 'let's be kind and helpful to all people'.

Exactly. That’s the sort of thing people mean by being thoughtful and considerate. Rather than eating all the cake and saying “What a shame you can’t have any……”

There are people who observe Lent far more strictly than that. And I would have thought a 25 hour fast would considered significant. But the point is, that it isn't considered at all.

“Be kind and helpful to all people. Be kind and helpful in this specific way in these specific circumstances”

I'm not, I'm suggesting that you are making life harder. Instead of non Muslims carrying on as normal because we don't believe, you are getting into a pickle by then inviting people who can't attend. Either because it's not sunset and so they haven't broken their fast or because you are inviting them to something many wouldn't attend as they won't go to a place serving alcohol.
In trying to be kind, you are creating other issues.
Just accept that fasting is supposed to be difficult, it's about avoiding temptation and non Muslims just carry on as usual.

But why the need for a whole lot of company-wide comms and awareness-raising? You can't make any assumptions about whether any individual colleague may be fasting. You might not know who is Muslim, who is Muslim and observant, who is observant but not fasting for health reasons etc.

So all that's needed is that you offer cake to your colleague, they say, 'I'd love to but I'm fasting for Ramadan, do you mind if I take some home?' If you work in a place with a good culture and you're not a twat, you'll either say 'yes of course' or perhaps 'what's Ramadan?', maybe they'll explain, job done. There is no need for companies to create an atmosphere of tiptoeing around certain protected groups. This is exactly what they did with the trans stuff and it created havoc.

It is very unusual for people to observe Lent that strictly. And crucially it is not a requirement for all Christians. Tell me about the 25 hour fast?

Yes, but the specific circumstances that are chosen are chosen for political reasons. Hence the virtue signalling.

Jews fast for Yom Kippur. I have Jewish colleagues who do a 25 hour fast that includes no water.

I don't think workplaces should be concerning themselves with what the religion dictates is a requirement or not. Muslims have varying degrees of observance as do Christians.

It's Yom Kippur.

Would you be as interested if your colleague had married a 14yo girl?

whats the difference?

Have you also complained about your workplace's Christmas party or any such equivalent?

It doesn't cost you anything to be aware of Ramadan, just like it doesn't cost your Muslim colleagues anything to be aware of Christmas.

Current world events may also mean this is a particularly difficult time for some of your Muslim colleagues. They may have friends or family who are affected by conflict in the Middle East. A little basic empathy and awareness in this situation is not something to get on your high horse about.

what have tinsel, fairy lights and chocolate got to do with Jesus?

“Political”? What exactly do you mean?

So Ramadan?

Not sure why it’s an issue? (Though my workplace does loads of similar things - we just had a bake sale for Purim!)

Colleagues are fasting for a month so it’s simply a reminder there will be huge numbers of hangry people in the office.

There are loads of messages but en par with St Patrick’s, Lunar New Year and far fewer than for Easter and Christmas. But normally it’s led my the societies so depends on how active your society is.

In my experience, people observing Yom Kippur don’t go to work.