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Have you ever experienced negative consequences for "coming out" atheist at work? I'm not saying you have to wear a sign, or make an announcement, but when you indicate it when religion comes up in a conversation.

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Orbit 7 Jan 2
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12 comments

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I'm quite verbal about the idiocy of religion...when it's brought up, of course. I'm quite verbal about being an atheist (and anti-theist). I'm a supervisor for a call center; inbound calls for over 50,000 accounts, across the U.S. and Canada. We answer for a particular "religious hotline"...when them callers get on my phone and in my ear, all I do (during the entire call) is roll my eyeballs to the back of my head. I can't tell them to suck it up and stop asking for something their "god" already knew would happen (apparently) but they're trying to change "his" mind. I understand that they feel they need this coping mechanism, and I often wish them a happier day...but when they start "preaching" to me...I want to throw up.

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I never had the good sense to keep my mouth shut about my agnosticism. Consequently the local yokels in Oklahoma said I was an atheist. My atheist friends said I was not brave enough to say I was atheist so I called myself an agnostic. I basically told everyone after that that I don't believe in the Christian religion or any other religion that I've ever heard of. Then I let them label me however they wanted. Did I ever lose opportunities because of that? I imagine the opportunities I lost were a result of that and my combined Independence and lack of deference to authority. For example, I wore a black mourning band on my arm when Reagan was elected. That was definitely found on since I worked for the Department of Defense . Despite my lack of brown nosing, I take test very well and sometimes Federal employers can't get around that fact.

3

I don’t discuss religion at work. The buybull belt is no joke and I would be ostracized is a heartbeat.

1

Yes. It turned out that it colored the way I was treated by management and co-workers, alike, to the point that it influenced what kinds of work I was given to do. A time or two I was assigned tasks that were actually set up to fail. I foiled one of the attempts by managing to make the project productive in spite of this. They claimed I had an "attitude problem." I have never been accused of such a thing in any job prior to that, nor following it.

Deb57 Level 8 Jan 2, 2019
2

I work as a barista at Starbucks. I’m really lucky because most of my coworkers don’t care and Starbucks is already an accepting company. Everyone has a different opinion on Starbucks, but from my research Starbucks has always been accepting of minorities. Also my coworkers are, for the most part, really young (early 20s) so they are super accepting.
We don’t really talk about religion all that much because we all have our own beliefs and we all can accept that.

@Gooniesnvrdie that’s so interesting. Maybe it can be because I’m in California which is definitely a liberal state but that’s definitely so interesting cause my experiences are the exact opposite.

2

I'm an independent consultant. I telecommute and am currently exclusive to a west coast-based client. My direct report is 2,200 or so miles away. I only see her (or anyone else that is an employee or consultant at this company) in person, once a year, at their annual conclave.

I don't discuss my religious or political [un]beliefs with those folks, as I consider it unprofessional. However, in the same way I have figured out "by osmosis" that the key players are quite conservative both religiously and politically, I'm sure they at least strongly suspect I am quite liberal politically and either a liberal believer or unbeliever. However it's an unspoken rule that we don't discuss such things. Also I make it clear that we DO share ethical convictions regarding things like "anything worth doing is worth doing right" and they know that I have their backs in terms of making sure any contact I have with their clients are positive experiences for their clients, etc. They also have many examples of times I could have flaked out or screwed them financially and have not done so. This kind of thing is all that really matters for me to do my job.

I suspect that most workplaces that aren't seriously dysfunctional operate in roughly this way, or at least in a "don't ask, don't tell" mode that's functionally similar.

All that said, I haven't "come out" as I see no upside to it and potentially quite a lot of downside.

0

I have had the good fortune to work in Austin, where most people are good with you if you are a good worker and treat people decently. Have only worked one place where my belief system would've been a problem, didn't work there long.

1

Seriously no one cares here. I like the idea of a sign though, like the Scarlett Letter in Hawthorne"s book!

Oh 'Shame' everywhere we walk!

2

I was actually harassed by a Bible thumper when she found out I wasn't a Christian. I actually had to threaten to write her up for hostile work environment before she would stop.

1

I never discuss religion or politics at work.

2

British - and in general being an atheist is not a problem here.

In fact our former prime minister, Tony Blair, delayed declaring that he was a born again, church-going catholic because strong religious belief was considered actively NEGATIVE for a politician - and Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democratic party, (a committed 'strong' christian) was heavily criticised for allowing his religious views to affect his political views (not sure if the criticism was justified, actually) and ended up resigning from Lib-Dem leadership.

Absolutely

4

Here in the Southeast, it is a given that coming out as an atheist will trigger negative responses. The rednecks here are quite superstitious, and they are bigoted and intolerant of those who have brains.

Living in Texas, I concur.

@jlynn37 Without a doubt.

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