moose656 asked this question
about how he was an atheist in his workplace and people were finding out that he's an atheist.
And some of his colleagues were starting to preach to him in the office.
And they weren't trying to threaten him with hellfire if he didn't repent or something. They were trying to warn him.
But it amounted to the same thing. And his question was, you know, "What should I do about this?"
And I would say, you know, at first, if that were going on in somebody's workplace,
you want to try to be polite. You don't want to be the one there to ruffle any feathers or anything. So, just try to have a conversation in the sense where you say,
"Look, we can have this conversation later, but when I'm at work,
I want to focus on my job here. I don't want to debate religion."
"Maybe this is one of those areas where we agree to disagree."
The fact is their intentions of why they want to preach to you, their intentions don't matter.
That should not be happening in the workplace.
So, at first maybe it's helpful to try to be polite; to try to just let them down easy and say, "Look,
I appreciate what you're trying to do,
but this isn't the place for it, and I don't really feel like engaging in this debate right now. So,
back off."
You know, you could say that politely.
If that doesn't work, though, I don't see any problem with going to your boss
and saying, "Look this is what's going on: I don't appreciate it.
Can you please put a stop to it?"
The boss should do something about it. And if the boss doesn't, then go to the boss's boss. Go to someone higher up in the chain until someone does something about it.
Because you shouldn't have to deal with that sort of proselytizing.
And keep in mind: it's not just about religion. This isn't just about
trying to make you become a Christian.
This is basically amounting to harassment.
And if it were sexual harassment, I don't think anyone would have any questions about it. They would say: "Yes, report it."
And someone needs to fix that.
Well, guess what? This is religious harassment and they're trying to bother you. They're making you feel uncomfortable coming to work
and working with those colleagues. I don't know what type of interaction you have to have with them,
but it makes your work life
very uncomfortable. And you shouldn't have to put up with that.
I would add two caveats to all of that:
First is, if they're ever emailing you anything, if they're leaving Bible verses on your desk, if they're ever leaving some sort of
warning on your desk, like, "Here's a Bible. You should read it,"
save all of it; save the emails; save the document; save anything that might show
that this is what's going on to you, just so you have that sort of proof
in case anyone asks.
And the second thing is:
Even though a lot of you really want to have that religious debate,
I'm telling you, the workplace is not the place to have it.
Do not retaliate. Do not start arguing religion in the workplace.
Maybe if you're comfortable with your colleagues and you go out after work or something, maybe that's a place where you can have those type of debates.
But in work -- at work -- trying to tell someone why they're wrong about Jesus and why,
I don't know, The God Delusion is the best book ever,
it's not a good place to have it. Nothing will end well if you're having that conversation in the workplace.
So don't try to retaliate, and fight back, and have a debate in the office.
Even if you guys are okay with it, even if you and your colleague are okay with it,
I promise you that your colleagues are really annoyed. So, just don't bother.
They shouldn't be trying to preach to you. You shouldn't be trying to deconvert them.
Save it for outside the workplace. And if you can't handle it yourself,
-- and that's not a sign of weakness --
but if you can't handle it yourself,
report it to someone who will and keep going up that chain of command until
someone takes care of it, because it shouldn't be happening.
I would love to know if any of you have had that sort of experience in the workplace. How have you dealt with it.
Have you ever reported it? Is the advice I'm given right or wrong? We'd love to know.
If you could leave your stories down below,
hopefully other people can read what you've gone through
and kind of figure out what the best way is for them to deal with the situation at their workplace.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write for FriendlyAtheist.com
Please, leave a message below and we will check it out.