“Secular companies have invited employees to bring their “whole selves” to work. That increasingly includes their religion.” NY Times
“Twenty years ago, few secular companies recognized faith-based employee groups and those that did exist — whether officially sanctioned or not — were typically for Christians. Today, nearly 70 secular corporations officially fund them, according to the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, and scores more allow them to exist. Many groups are new since 2017, some have thousands of members and represent Christians, Muslims and Jews, along with Sikhs, Buddhists, Baha’is and even atheists.
“Scholars call this a cultural shift. The secular office has long been “a neutral space, where there is separating out of religion,” said Helen Chung, an assistant professor of industrial-organizational psychology at Seattle Pacific University who studies faith-based employee resource groups. This is partly “a carry-over from the separation of church and state,” Ms. Chung said, and partly a way to keep the peace. “What are the two things you’re not supposed to talk about?” said Brian Grim, president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation. “Religion and politics.”
“Inviting employees to bring their whole selves to the workplace means companies should be prepared to host some difficult conversations. “That doesn’t mean companies have to weigh in on Israel-Palestine,” Mr. Singh said. But, he said, workers of faith “have real issues that they’ll be bringing to the table, and you have to be ready to address them.”
Read the comments section of this article and you’ll see that the most popular comments are vehemently against the idea of people bringing their beliefs to work. They fear being evangelized, having conversations that touch on personal subjects in an environment where they are focussed on their work-related responsibilities and productivity.
A useful resource
Board certified chaplains–the only kind who work here at The Company Chaplain, LLC–are a useful resource if you do have folks uncomfortable at work due to religious beliefs… either because they are supported, or not supported.
In my work as a chaplain at the VA health care system in Los Angeles, I was responsible for protecting employees’ constitutional rights to religion, as well as their rights to freedom from religion. In other words, to ensure that employees be free to have spiritual support, if they wanted it, and also to be free of unwanted religious intrusions.
Christmas is a time when there are often concerns about religion in the workplace. Some folks want to celebrate with displays, sometimes too large for others to feel comfortable. While each situation is unique and deserves to be handled sensitively, it’s fair to say one response is often to ensure that all religions have equal rights to religious displays, and that the displays should be personal–a photo on the employee’s desk, for example–rather than an installation that dominates the workspace.
A Board Certified Chaplain’s training and education is pluralistic, interdisciplinary and supportive of each individual’s beliefs, making us a great resource to advise managers about religious and spiritual issues in the workplace. Feel free to contact us with any questions.