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!!!

I think it's any illness which means that not eating would cause issues. It seems fairly wide. The expectation as I understand it is that those who cannot fast will donate to a charity.

I've made a small change of my work day by not eating my lunch at my desk in front of fasting colleagues. Its just a simple respectful change.
I like my colleagues and want to be as helpful as I can. Its not a huge ask that they want people to be accepting of other religions.

How do you go about “pandering” to Muslims in your day to day life? I would love to know what that involves.

I agree OP. I work in a public sector org and the comms around Ramadan have a very performative whiff about them. It gets my goat. Fasting will normally have zero impact on anyone’s work (and if it does they shouldn’t be at work/fasting). If they are offered a biscuit they can simply say ‘no thank you’. You can get it’s performative leftist virtue signalling because there is no similar consideration for any other minority religion.

No because Christmas has basically become completely non religious at least where I live anyway. I mean the vast vast majority of people celebrate Christmas and very few attend mass or anything . People from all religions attend the Christmas party .. and there is zero mention of religion. That’s different from an email saying let’s all be supportive of everyone doing lent or whatever.

I would assume it's about Ramadan

why would you assume that, its lent at the moment, could be lent that is bneng referred to

Yep. And maybe not organising a work lunch during Ramadan?

That’s lovely of you. Do you do the same on Yom Kippur?

People can just decline . Why shouldn’t there be a work lunch during that time ?

Oh I see, so because you’ve decided Christmas is not a religious holiday then everyone can bang on about it for basically a quarter of every year and that’s all okay, but some people cannot talk about any other religious observances every once in a while? What would you say if people decided mention of Christmas should be banned in public life?

Sounds a bit like they are laying it on a bit thick, but I don't see why being considerate of your colleagues is a bad thing.

People have all kinds of weird and wonderful things going on in their lives, caring responsibilities, small children, religious beliefs, some people get time off to be magistrates or councillors or armed forces reservists. A lot of big employers offer volunteering leave.

A woman in my church has dispensation not to routinely do Sunday shifts (she works in hospitality) so it definitely applies to Christians too.

I've never been one of those crab in a bucket types who sees someone else get something to help them and then cries because it doesn't apply to me. Women have more options now than when I had small kids, several of the women in my team do term time working for e.g.; I don't cry about that either, I'm glad the world is easier for them.

Most people just consider Christmas and Easter to be a rest from work. A chance to eat and drink too much, see family or whatever. It's not about going to church or taking part in any religious activity.
Of course JWs don't celebrate do they? I wonder if people would be considerate of them.

You got nearly every descriptor in there but forgot “snowflakes”. Try again for a bonus point.

Why should there be? Unless it has to be then for some reason, why not just move it?

showing visible support

What are people at work supposed to do, to show visible support for someones religion?

That’s literally what most religious observances are about: resting, taking time for reflection, coming together with friends and family. So what’s the problem with Muslims doing it?

Give some examples of other faiths that have practices that might require some accomodation.

It's about the instruction to show 'visible support' for people who are fasting. I'm not asking for visible support to do any of the things I mentioned.

It sounds as though someone higher up is being a bit 'try hard'. Many of my colleagues were Muslim, and during Ramadan they specifically didn't want any special treatment.
Fasting is supposed to be hard. It's the whole point of it. So they didn't want people to make it easier for them by not eating or drinking in their presence, as itv would diminish their efforts.

Oh come on - no one's making special adaptations for Lent - the majority of Christians don't even fast. Maybe a few of us giving up chocolate...
We all know that in terms of accommodations, Islam is going to get the most. There's just a higher level of strict observance in the Muslim community than within UK Christians.

Edited for typo

I mean it depends what type of work lunch you mean. People go out for lunch all the time for various reasons . They could include lunches for meetings for a specific reason, a social lunch because it’s someone’s birthday etc etc . I genuinely don’t think people would expect all work lunches to be cancelled during that time. Other people have to eat lunch regardless of who is fasting

I think the problem is that you are not allowed to criticise because you are then labelled a racist if the religion is islam or judaïsm. I despise all kind of religion and I would let people know if they were catholic/christian but I wouldn't dare to be as straightforward dealing with the other two because the racist card would be pulled.

We got newish neighbours who have prevented me from sleeping for a week. I was sad to see they were arabic when I went over to complain because ofcourse they will say I'm a racist who won't let them celebrate Ramadan all night🙄.

No, Islamic pregnant woman or women who have just given birth do not have to fast.

I would be relieved to be honest . I’m not a fan at all of the whole thing.

I get emails every week from our people and culture team about stuff like this, along with LBGTQ+ events etc. I ignore it but I’m glad the company does it. I’m interested in people and their religion - if I’m friends with someone at work who practices a certain religion I might ask them about it. I would never intentionally do anything to make anyone feel uncomfortable at work but equally, I don’t care about their sexual preferences. So I ignore it. It does me no harm but if it helps some people feel included that’s great.