Showing posts with label religion and the workplace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion and the workplace. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2013

Undercover Agnostic (Update 2): Questions From My Boss About My Unbelief

I have come out to very few people at my job, even though it would be fairly safe for me to do so. Contrary to my online life, I actually don't talk about being an agnostic in the real world, and especially not at work.

Part of it is a personal feeling of mine that there should be separation of religion/politics and the workplace. If you need to work with people, it's best not to potentially have them turn on you because of being outspoken about political or religious beliefs when there really isn't a need to discuss it in the first place. I just want to get in, work, do my job, and go home (and enjoy a paycheck every 2 weeks).

 I've come out to a few people, mostly when during the course of the day, a conversation comes up about one's beliefs, and I try not to be obnoxious, or practically walk around with a sign that says "I'm agnostic". I find it annoying when religious people exhibit that kind of behavior, so why should I do it to other people? I don't hide my beliefs, but I feel no need to let it define me.

I'm different on the internet, because well, it's the internet. It's a place made for discussion and sharing, and it's my outlet for letting it all out.

Back to my job again, one of my two bosses on my shift is a very religious man, I've known that since I started working at this job. He has never been the type to try to force his faith on others, like most fundamentalists.

He is the kind of guy that his faith influences his lifestyle to the point that it oozes out of him in ways so subtle, even he probably doesn't realize it's happening.

He never talks about any specifics of his faith, and it fact, his calm, polite demeanor, and his sense of fashion had me wondering for a while if he was a Mormon (it turns out that he is a fundamentalist Pentecostal).