Religion & employment

Another classic trick is to fire you for no reason; then offer to rehire you under poor circumstances (reduced pay, unrealistic expectations, etc). Refusal to accept a job offer disqualifies you for unemployment.

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@Aloner I think most work places need to leave religion out of it and just focus on the what they’re there to do. I’ve been in this situation before on holidays when all the Christians want to gather and pray over the food. I just stand there and don’t say anything. Christians are infamous for shoving their religion down everyone’s throat. They’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. I wouldn’t expect them to stop anytime soon.

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Sadly this is correct. Companies teach senior staff how to “manage people out”, while limiting the company’s legal exposure. I imagine it’s the same in many countries.

It certainly happens in the UK. Senior managers generally negotiate severance packages up front in their contract of employment. A level of protection not afforded many employees.

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In the UK if you’ve worked for a company for less than 2 years, and you haven’t negotiated a notice period up front, then you basically get squat. Stautory redundancy is one (not taxable) gross week’s salary for each year of employment, including the first two, but only after you’ve completed two years.

You are also legally entitled to a weeks notice for each year of employment.

I’m going through it right now as it happens, not my first time either sadly.

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Norway: It is normal to negotiate a trial time of about 6 months where employer and employee can both terminate employment with short notice. I’m guessing here, but maybe a week or so is normal. After that, and the employment is permanent, standard notice period in work contracts is 3 months(*). Contracts are required when one part asks for it, but is standard. Only shithole and criminal employers refuse or dodge contracts. Giving shorter notice CAN be done, but then the employer must make damn sure employee agrees (and is not under duress) and/or is compensated properly, or there will probably be legal repercussions. Firing someone can only be done for a good reason. Firing and rehiring with lower pay, or firing and then hiring another person for the same or similar job is illegal.

(*) sometimes notice periods can be asymmetric, giving extra benefit to employee. This sometimes happen in the public sector.

Edit: dammit, that thing I wanted to edit just didn’t want to get fixed. Hence high edit number.

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I don’t understand.

Here in Oz, unemployment benefit is a federal welfare payment. There are penalties for leaving a job without a good reason or for being fired for misconduct (the department checks with employers). It is illegal to force person to take part in religious activities.

If a person left a job with religious expectations without first trying to resolve the issue, penalties could be applied. Usually 6 weeks loss of payment.

There are all kinds of penalties and exclusions. It’s not really about money. The Australian welfare system is based on the notion of ‘the deserving poor’***

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((9))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

***a competent Sociologist or Social anthropologist would probably be able to explain that to you.

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LOL… wasn’t really worth paying attention to. Sorry. Sister, Niece… doesn’t make a difference. Fired, quit, still no difference. The comment remains the same… You got to have evidence.

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Hi, I’d like to weigh in on this, if I may . . . as I’m in a somewhat similar situation at my job.

I currently work for a religious hospital (I’m an ex-paramedic who now works as an EKG technician), and–while I swore that I would never work for a religious healthcare institution again–found the experience to be quite positive so far, despite my atheistic leanings.

My employer (a 7th Day Adventist hospital) makes a big deal out of being inclusive, so when I was offered a chance to lead the beginning of shift prayer, I recited Kaddish (the Jewish prayer of remembrence) in honor of all the healthcare workers who gave their lives during this horrible pandemic.

This made several of my coworkers uncomfortable, but it also did the following:

  1. They don’t want to be labled “anti-Semetic” (or anti anything else) in this current atmosphere of increased sensitivity to bigotry (probably due–in part–to George Floyd), so they are fearful of giving me a hard time about religion and/or getting sued.
  2. I haven’t been asked to participate in religious functions again.
  3. They keep asking me if I need Saturdays off (and no, I don’t).
  4. I just get left alone to do my job, and this suits me perfectly fine.

So, issue solved.

I’ve always believed that the workplace and religion don’t mix. People have to be able to work with each other . . . not like each other, as work isn’t a social club (or shouldn’t be).

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Omg :laughing: perfect…

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I’m not saying people shouldn’t be allowed to pray at work, quite the contrary, but that includes non-belief from being encroached on as well.
If someone wants to pray at work, have at it, but I don’t want to be involved.
It was very clever what you did, all I’m saying is, you shouldn’t feel compelled to participate for fear of retribution.

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Did you really LOL? What evidence do you have that you laughed out loud? Why even bother saying anything at all? What documentation do you have that you LOL’d? Writing it down doesn’t make it true. Witnessess lie. So short of me seeing it with my own eyes, or a video recording proven not to be tampered with, why would anyone believe you laughed out loud?
I don’t believe you did.

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I hope Cancel Culture becomes a thing for religion one day. It’ll be a lot more funny when someone of the Christian faith is at the receiving end of it all. I remember when government schools enforced secularism. They told teachers they couldn’t have a board of the 10 Commandments sitting in the classroom and then they basically passed a rule that kids can’t wear crosses and have to leave their bibles at home. A lot of religious teachers walked out. Wal-Mart does the same thing. They enforced a rule that religious employees have to leave it at the door and they made this Catholic guy remove his cross. Loved it! Now that was progress!

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Cheesus. Having religious activity at work. I’m glad I work at a secular workplace in a secular part of the world.

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Lucky, lucky, you. If there is one thing me and others from the U.S. on this forum seem to have in common is that we’re surrounded up to our ears by the shove it in your face religious people.

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I love the sentiment. Got them off your back. You shouldn’t have had to.

Are you Jewish (culturally)? Don’t know of any goyim who would know how to recite Kaddish. Don’t you need a Minyan? Or is it OK because the people at work wouldn’t known the difference?.

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It does seem to be a quirk that the North Americans, specifically the US has. The French have shrugs, the brits warm beer and football, Aussies beaches and cask wine…you lot have religion.

When I lived there I was constantly invited to churches and services by well meaning folks. I formed the conclusion that it replaced the community feeling that Aussies and Scots find in pubs and clubs. Mind having said that where I was brought up in Scotland the church was a very big influencer on daily life. Not now, it has largely lost its relevance.

The sad thing is that the US nowadays has garnered a similar reputation to the Arab countries and Iran in being thigh deep in religious hypocrisy.

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I have colleagues that I know are religious, but talking about religion at work is next to taboo, especially proselytizing. Actually, civil discussions can be OK if all parts agree on it and it is a semi-academic discussion. The norm is just to avoid the subject. Except…when there are no corona restrictions, we are a group of people that between us have very few restrictions on what we can discuss over lunch, so lunch discussions can be quite lively. And it so happens that most of us are atheists, so there can be quite a lot of religion bashing and anti-religious talk over the table. Yay!

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Sighhhhhh. I will picture sitting at that lovely sounding lunch table of yours as a pleasant day dream, my reality is more like a nightmare full of delusional people.

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I had discovered an Atheist group dinner 10 minutes from my house Unfortunately right before Covid hit.
I’m planning on going once it resumes, but for now I’m stuck, too, at the delusional nightmare table.

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I keep reading about the omnipresent religiosity in the US and its manifestations in everyday life. But I find it hard to understand. I have been to the US several times for vacations, and I have had my shares of God-bless-yous and I’ll-pray-for-yous. But I have alway shrugged them off as things people just say without actually meaning it or thinking too much of it. So now my question is: how bad is it really?

Those things almost never happen here. Partly because I tend to avoid religious places and contexts, but also because it’s just not something that you do here. You keep those things to yourself and to contexts that are conducive to religiosity. I can remember only one time somebody announced “I will pray for you” to me here, and that was a representative of a christian political party during the apex of campaigning before an election.

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