Your experiences as an Employee

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dr Peter on September 5, 2008 at 5:13am

Freethinker,

Sorry to hear you had to endure such treatment that obviously was issued from narrow minds.

Of those that harassed you, other than being Xtian, were there other common elements they possessed?

Permalink Reply by Reality Activist on December 7, 2008 at 12:04pm

It would be wise for more atheists to reflect on your experience. Most of the time it is a waste to present anti religious ideas to a fundamentalists and, to a large degree, to moderate religious people. They will not be able to understand. It is better to expose them to positive behavior by conspicuous atheists. One can not argue with behavior. Unfortunately, most atheists are unable to break the chains that our religiously based culture has on us. If they could, many atheists would be conspicuous in public without being confrontative. Exposing the religious to the good behavior of people who have an alternative viewpoint is imperative if we want to stimulate change in the public's perception.

Permalink Reply by Dr Offats on September 1, 2008 at 9:18pm

I work in a hospital (no, not a "St. Something"). While the hospital is quick to service "people of all faiths", the service comes from a "chapel" and is addressed to people "with a faith in god". Additionally, most lower level employees and clinical faculty "assume" you should believe in god, and tend to show religious idols, start religious discussions (I call it "fishing") and send "Have Jesus Kinda Day" emails. I understand they mean well, but it's annoying and rather offensive at times, especially when I realize that if I were to participate in similar secular observances, the human resources department would be at my door within minutes.

That being said, we are a hospital and we deal with patients (i.e., "customers"). When a patient expresses faith in god or Jesus, I simply smile and nod in affirmation of their faith. Not only is it not my place (or any other hospital employee's) to disagree with "the customer" in these matters, but the potential positive thinking and sense of community that accompanies many of these people's faith and prayers usually only helps in battling their illness.

A business needs to assess how "faith" works in the work environment and how that might be reflected back to their customers. For the majority of businesses, a secular (not atheist) environment is needed in order to preserve the peace between believers and unbelievers alike. This is also primarily true in dealing with the customer (with some rather obvious and not-so-obvious exceptions). Businesses who shove their religion (usually Christianity) in my face as a customer rarely get repeat business.

Permalink Reply by Dr Peter on September 5, 2008 at 5:25am

Dr Offats,

I can well understand the "Have Jesus Kinda Day" feeling.

How would it be if you just happened to have the superstitious observance that you found the members of Charles Manson's family always seemed so serene whenever they were photographed.

How would it be taken if you took glee in sending emails with Have a Manson Family Kinda Day, complete with pictures of the Manson Family.

You could decide to cherry-pick facts and decide to ignore anything the family ever did, and just select to find their style of photogenic appearance to be worthy of worship.

How long do you think you could persist with doing that before there was an outcry?

On a separate issue; - What interaction does the management of the hospital have in setting the agenda re: religiosity?

Permalink Reply by Crystal on September 26, 2008 at 12:07am

Better yet, send along a "Have a Jellyfish Kinda Day"!!

I LOVE MY JOB . . . . . . If you don't laugh out loud after you read this you are in a coma! Thisis even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad dayat work think of this guy. Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana ..He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne , Indiana , who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.
Hi Sue, Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all . Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a wet suit to the office. This time of year the water is quite cool.So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature, then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse.Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into mysuit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfishcouldn't stick to it However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding thejellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brasshelmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter runningdown his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut. So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat to yourself, "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job."
(Guess who the "jellyfish" in this case would be.)

Permalink Reply by Dr Peter on September 27, 2008 at 1:44am

Crystal,

Glad you shared that with us. Love it.

Permalink Reply by Sinfulswimful on September 29, 2008 at 12:26am

omg im never going diving again!!

Permalink Reply by Matt on September 11, 2008 at 9:14am

I work in a less formal environment, running and repairing large machines for a factory. Corporate takes no stance toward religion whatsoever, which I respect. My co-workers, on the other hand, seem to be mostly religious people.

The usual "WWJD" shirts and cross pendants don't bother me too much, because they're everywhere.

What really bothers me are the flyers. Evangelical in nature, these attempt to scare the reader by threatening that they will go to hell if they are not saved... then they offer to do the saving for you and send you a Bible if you fill out the back and mail it to them with a check for $12.95.

I've had several of my co-workers tell me that I'm going to go to hell because I do not believe in God. I have a big tattoo and I wear black t-shirts, so these crazies automatically assume that I'm headed straight to hell.

I like to tell them, "If there is a hell, I'll hold the door for ya."

Permalink Reply by Fiona on September 25, 2008 at 7:29pm

Seeing WWJD makes me laugh
I saw that for the first time years ago and asked my then boyfriend
what it stood for
He said it stood for Wank With Jesus Daily lol
I said it does not and asked him to tell me what it really stood for
and he just kept saying he was pretty sure he was correct
Now whenever I see that WWJD I cant help but think of his version before I can make my brain find the one that its supposed to have
Just like my poor brain cant get over that meaning lol

Permalink Reply by Tracy Caraker on September 23, 2008 at 6:07am

I work for a company where the owners and many of the employees are fundamentalist christians. They haven't got flyers floating around or any overt propaganda. They actually haven't bothered me at all. Lucky me! However, while walking through the plant one day, I found they've been quietly infiltrated! On the side of one of the machines was a sticker of his holiness, the FSM! Apparently, the employees thought they were making stickers for a company that makes PASTA! Little do they realize, they've all been touched by his noodly appendage :)

Permalink Reply by Fiona on September 25, 2008 at 7:24pm

Thats funny Tracy
So its like a printing company you work for?

Permalink Reply by Tracy Caraker on September 26, 2008 at 5:56am

They make signs, like stop signs, speed limit signs, safety signs & yes even stickers :)

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