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Is your workplace atheist friendly.

In a meeting this morning for our fundraising event we discussed the silent auction donations. Someone had donated Joyce Meyers books and other religious books, and another person a bracelet/earrings set that had a religious message with dangly crosses.

The big boss quickly shot it down and said we do not promote anything religious. Wait? What? Am I still in the south? Made me like that place even more!

helionoftroy 7 Aug 29
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26 comments

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4

In the UK a nurse was disciplined for wearing a cross. In both my jobs, clinical practice and as a university lecturer, religion is not considered appropriate or helpful. In fact I know only one lecturer who describes herself as a Christian and she swears like a trooper! One lecturer who is muslim who is also very irreverent. Discussing religion with students outside of a purely educational setting would probably get the person sacked. I have two of my home group students who are Christian (out of 18), one guy who is ('loosely' his words) hindu, one pagan and the rest are non-religious. I only know this because we briefly discussed it during an end of life session. In fact it is such a non issue, its a little bit odd if someone states they are religious.

You are fortunate. If the local hospital with at "Saint" as a part of the name is any indicator, every room must display an Roman implement of torture and death. The wearing of said tool of death is routinely worn on uniforms. Not long ago they changed the logo on the Hospital. It once had a cross on it. Now there is a colourful thing that looks like it surrounds a white cross. A little less in your face.

We are so ahead of the USA on these matters!

4

In a previous job I put up a small Zombie Jesus poster in my cubicle and 2 days later my Evangelical boss's boss canceled my project and laid me off. I avoid religion at work.

4

Self employed, the boss is an ass but at least we tolerate atheists ok

3

My workplace is definitely atheist friendly. If fact, only atheists work here, so far. I'm self-employed and work from home.

3

I am self employed so yes, my workplace is very atheist friendly!

Carin Level 8 Aug 30, 2018
3

I work in a public school. While schools are supposed to be neutral, Christianity raises its ugly head everywhere. We got a new administrator last year who hung a huge cross on her wall (between 2-3 feet tall.) I had to call a few different people to get that thing taken down. There are a lot of religious symbols floating around, and the most annoying employee signs her emails with "Have a blessed day." I could go on....

Hearing “Have a blessed day” burns my biscuits.

@helionoftroy So many ways I'd like to respond, but it wouldn't end well for me.

@helionoftroy, when I hear "Have a blessed day” I respond with a happy "Hail Satan" and a wave and watch their reaction. It can be very entertaining. I've also used "No thank you" and "May the force be with you" depending on circumstances and my mood.

@ldheinz oooooo.....May the force be with you. Good one. I may have to borrow that one.

Enjoy, @Anne209. BTW, have you seen the one about the priest who bought a crucifix at Ikea?

@ldheinz LMAO! Classic!

@jc2018 You would think! I bet that depends on which religion is being spouted.

3

Pretty sure my cats are atheist and I would bet my ferrets are agnostic they are fairly laid back when they aren't getting into something. I do my work at home.

3

No, my work place is not atheist friendly. Religion is brought up often, and my boss is VERY religious. They don’t know that I’m an atheist. I just get quiet when religion is brought up, and leave the room if I can.

2

Not at all. I worked for a Sheriff in a county where the goal was to have a church on every corner. If you weren't a church goer, and the correct church at that, you would never get promoted.

2

Very encouraging

2

It’s a forbidden topic at work.

2

Not an issue where I work.

2

What an enlightened boss! That job's a keeper, especially if such common sense pervades other areas of decision making. And that goes triple for the South.

I work for a virtual company, so while the company is not particularly atheist friendly (my direct report is a conservative Catholic; the exec VP of sales is a Christian fundamentalist) I have never been accosted about my personal beliefs. The owner (also old school Irish Catholic) is aware of my liberal leanings, not because I've talked about them, but just because he's very perceptive. He does not like them, but understands I have integrity and skill and that's what he hired me for. He's capable of trusting people so long as they have his back and get the job done.

Anyway ... 99% of my work is done in a converted bedroom in my home. I have one sub-contractor here but we meet in person maybe 4 times a year and he's a certified, pony-tailed lib-ruhl. I don't know about his beliefs about deities but he's probably an atheist.

Once a year I make a pilgrimage to the Left Coast for an annual company meeting and usually one other trip to our subsidiary on the Right Coast and occasionally to visit a company client. The rest of my work interactions are via email and Slack. Not enough contact for personal thoughts / beliefs / circumstances to come under discussion. I like to keep it that way.

All in all, I might as well be working for myself. The "gig economy", they call it. It's great for misfits like me.

2

I'm retired now, but my last employer had a policy that didn't allow any religious or political posters or electronic media. I never made a secret of my atheism, and nobody seemed to care. I was certainly outnumbered, but not pressured or harassed. I was there for 28 and a half years, openly secular the whole time. They also covered domestic partners in their dependent and spousal insurance coverage too regardless of orientation.

2

Wow. There's hope yet......... in small increments.
I work in a religion free work place although the number of religious customers is pretty high. 😕

2

My last job was mostly christians but none seemed to hold my open atheism against me. At the job before that I worked for a muslim man with a mixture of muslim, christian, and undeclared coworkers. None of the coworkers treated me differently because of my beliefs and the boss said he welcomed how I added diversity to his staff.

2

I live in the deep south; it's safe to say that, while they may be on paper, the reality is quite different.

I had zero problems in AL/GA, but OK was a little odd.

2

I work in state government. There are loads of believers but they aren't too overt about it. My immediate co-workers know me so there's that. LOL!

2

Yes, since I work from home and share the house with another atheist! Plus, the other four here - three cats and a pup - are also atheists.

1

It is ironic that we have employees who show up hung over, call in due to self induced illness, lie, cheat and steal. I can always be on time, know my job and be perfectly professional, but as an atheist I am the evil one.

Good times.

Totally understand this!

1

I think people at my workplace suspect that I am atheist, but I have to be careful. The founder of the corporation was extremely religious and some of that has carried over. You have to watch what you say. What they know about me specifically is that I once studied for the ministry but today I am not religious. I tend to leave it right there.

I am lucky that several people at my job are not religious. I don’t want to lump them in one category and say they’re agnostic. But more people here are not religious than are religious. I guess because we are an organization for the disabled community the viewpoint is different.

1

It's different in the UK, nobody gives a toss what you believe or if you believe at all.

1

For the most part. There is one that can't stand me because I don't believe in her invisible sky-daddy but I don't run across her very often. We do have meetings that require prayer and closing with thanks to Jesus but I use that time to reflect on the sad condition of those I work with (fantasy over facts). I am not undercover.

There are always those who cannot stand you for some reason and others tend to take them very seriously. It was recently said that I smell like creamed corn. OMG! Think on that a minute. How offensive! 🙂

1

That is awesome!!

1

Nope, but it's ok if you just keep a lid on it.

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