Religion and Work

[FireonYce]

Today was a day I know wasn't even Chance. My faith was tested today and I'm not really sure what to do about it. I was bashed religiously. I had problems with a customer at my register. She was having problems with a Gift Card running through and it came to her flat out saying " They let you wear those Pagan Pins on your vest? I thought this was a family oriented store" Well you don't know but I am a Layaway associate at Wal=Mart and we are allowed to wear pins. I have many many pins on my vest. 30 on the front to be precise. I don't blatantly scream I am Pagan, but I take great Pride in who I am and what I believe in. It got to where she and i were debating. I was saying " Pagans have familys too, and allowing people to wear religious symbols of other religions and not allowing me to wear mine would be religious discrimination. " it really got me ticked off, because I think so many people get a wrong idea about Pagans and the like. So now for the discussion.

Showing your Religion in the work place. Yay or nay.

Do people have the wrong ideas about Pagans and other religions.

Religious Pride and all that good stuff. If you can't find a discussion than blah. =P  

[Jameta]

Ick, Wal*Mart. Sam had a great idea, but then it was turned into something... dreadful. Not only is its business ethics greatly questionable, but the people it attracts... xp

Nothing against you, Christo, of course. 3nodding Sometimes we have to work where we have to.

Showing your religion anywhere depends on where you are (with concerns toward native culture), what you are doing, and how comfortable you are with yourself. Like, it's probably not the greatest idea to show-off to a Neo-nazi that your Jewish during a business deal. In a general department store setting, like with you, it really shouldn't be a big deal- it's your clothes that's its on, not actual store property.

Yes, people are misinformed. That's because many are too lazy to find out the information for themselves and recieve it by way of someone else, who usually found it from someone else, so on and so forth. If you trace it back far enough, you'll find that the conclusion about Pagans was based on fear and control. So, until the general masses start actually reading their Good Books for themselves and other literature instead of listening to a crazed pastor, they're not going to be aware of the truth for a while.

I take pride in my faith because I see myself as a bridge between two faiths. Being a mix of traditions and beliefs, I feel like I can help people better understand each other. I'm also very unique because I'm a mix. Of course, I have to be careful in both circles, as I never know when someone will bite my head off for "inappropriately" terming/dubbing something.

I celebrate "Holidays" and I was ceelbrating "Holidays" before I was Pagan- Christmas and New Years. Why are so many people forgetting poor little New Years? gonk

And yes, I randomly added to the discussion. blaugh  

[FireonYce]

Jameta

Ick, Wal*Mart. Sam had a great idea, but then it was turned into something... dreadful. Not only is its business ethics greatly questionable, but the people it attracts... xp

Nothing against you, Christo, of course. 3nodding Sometimes we have to work where we have to.

Showing your religion anywhere depends on where you are (with concerns toward native culture), what you are doing, and how comfortable you are with yourself. Like, it's probably not the greatest idea to show-off to a Neo-nazi that your Jewish during a business deal. In a general department store setting, like with you, it really shouldn't be a big deal- it's your clothes that's its on, not actual store property.

Yes, people are misinformed. That's because many are too lazy to find out the information for themselves and recieve it by way of someone else, who usually found it from someone else, so on and so forth. If you trace it back far enough, you'll find that the conclusion about Pagans was based on fear and control. So, until the general masses start actually reading their Good Books for themselves and other literature instead of listening to a crazed pastor, they're not going to be aware of the truth for a while.

I take pride in my faith because I see myself as a bridge between two faiths. Being a mix of traditions and beliefs, I feel like I can help people better understand each other. I'm also very unique because I'm a mix. Of course, I have to be careful in both circles, as I never know when someone will bite my head off for "inappropriately" terming/dubbing something.

I celebrate "Holidays" and I was ceelbrating "Holidays" before I was Pagan- Christmas and New Years. Why are so many people forgetting poor little New Years? gonk

And yes, I randomly added to the discussion. blaugh

Yes wal-mart pays well and I need money. In general the main reason I work there. MOst places around here are like that. I am actually one of three known Pagans who work in the store. And we at times feel slightly attacked some times. Its just gotten to me. We always talk of the bad energy of the place. i have to wear a clensing crystal just to work. Broke my ring of horus too. Its just till I get through college and my writing career kicks off. 3nodding  

[Jameta]

Let's keep it that way. 3nodding

My whole family dislikes Wal*Mart; we also feel bad for most of the store employees. They appear to be worked too-much (not including my knowledge from various sources ninja ).

But yeah, its hard when you're "different", and it can be very awkward because you don't know when people are going to be accepting or aggressive.  

[FireonYce]

Jameta

Let's keep it that way. 3nodding

My whole family dislikes Wal*Mart; we also feel bad for most of the store employees. They appear to be worked too-much (not including my knowledge from various sources ninja ).

But yeah, its hard when you're "different", and it can be very awkward because you don't know when people are going to be accepting or aggressive.

very true, we are very over worked but either way I got 2 dollars less for being over worked at my last job. I hope one day someone takes wal=mart down. 3nodding  

[Jameta]

We're working on fighting one in my local area. *Makes mental note to do her letter against Wal*Mart this break*

Or at least have Sam's ghost come back to haunt the current owner into changing his ways, the Scrooge. confused  

[FireonYce]

Jameta

We're working on fighting one in my local area. *Makes mental note to do her letter against Wal*Mart this break*

Or at least have Sam's ghost come back to haunt the current owner into changing his ways, the Scrooge. confused

whats going on there where do you live 0_o;;  

[Jameta]

Christo Minaverus

Jameta

We're working on fighting one in my local area. *Makes mental note to do her letter against Wal*Mart this break*

Or at least have Sam's ghost come back to haunt the current owner into changing his ways, the Scrooge. confused

whats going on there where do you live 0_o;;

Washington; in my local area, we're trying to prevent a Wal*mart from going in, as there's another one just a little ways out.

As for the current top executive of Wal*Mart and such, he likes to lie and cheat his employees and others.  

[The Bookwyrm]

ugh... I hate having to deal with ignorant people in a customer service situation. You'd half expect it in a place like Wal Mart, but it really bowls you over when you're working in a Pagan shop!

Most of my time working is spent either in the meal hall of a Catholic university, or in a tire plant. I can't wear jewlery at Michelin, and it's rare I ever wear a pentacle to Morrison Hall; students are simply ignorant (as are some coworkers). When I have worn one, no one has seemed to notice, nor have they commented, but since there's a huge crucifix hanging over the dessert station, the first person to tell me they're offended will recieve a resounding "Bite me!" In situations where a customer is being beligerant about my religion, I do tend to cop a mild attitude and tell them that my religious persuasion has nothing to do with the transaction, and personal attacks will not make things go more smoothly. I've gone so far as suggesting that if they're so offended, perhaps they should take their business elsewhere where they will be less offended. Granted, that's not going to go over well in a place like Wal Mart.

However, you do have the right to refuse to serve someone like that. My suggestion would be to next time walk away, get someone else, and immediately report the situation to the manager. Imagine the surprise a fundy's bound to get when they get a two week ban from Wal Mart for harassment?  

[FireonYce]

Gypsy Blue

ugh... I hate having to deal with ignorant people in a customer service situation. You'd half expect it in a place like Wal Mart, but it really bowls you over when you're working in a Pagan shop!

Most of my time working is spent either in the meal hall of a Catholic university, or in a tire plant. I can't wear jewlery at Michelin, and it's rare I ever wear a pentacle to Morrison Hall; students are simply ignorant (as are some coworkers). When I have worn one, no one has seemed to notice, nor have they commented, but since there's a huge crucifix hanging over the dessert station, the first person to tell me they're offended will recieve a resounding "Bite me!" In situations where a customer is being beligerant about my religion, I do tend to cop a mild attitude and tell them that my religious persuasion has nothing to do with the transaction, and personal attacks will not make things go more smoothly. I've gone so far as suggesting that if they're so offended, perhaps they should take their business elsewhere where they will be less offended. Granted, that's not going to go over well in a place like Wal Mart.

However, you do have the right to refuse to serve someone like that. My suggestion would be to next time walk away, get someone else, and immediately report the situation to the manager. Imagine the surprise a fundy's bound to get when they get a two week ban from Wal Mart for harassment?

Ya, well, I will not put up with that againn, believe me. But I usually work layaway, and it is wonderful back there with customers usually. You have a set group of like 7 you work with and we all get along great. Up front is another story. =P  

[Seira Relur]

I applied to work at Wal-mart once. The only reason I did was because it was closer to home than my current job at McDonalds (yucky food gonk ) and a friend of mine who had just been hired there was getting 10 an hour. I was at my interview and I found out that for me to have the same job as he did i would only get paid 6.50.

I turned it down then and started talking around and found out that all the women were horribly under-paid compared to the men.

That's enough for me to hate Wal-mart.  

[Siofra Da`Halbria]

My brother used to work at the W*M. I work at Kroger (sorry Christo, I'm your biggest competition). I don't really talk about my religion at work. If they ask, I just say I'm Pagan. There was another Pagan guy at my work who wore a pentagram ring, but I haven't seen him in a long time. He must have quit. I didn't even think about it until now.

So now I am surrounded by Xtians. Luckily they all leave my religion alone. I don't rag on their religion, they don't rag on mine... But if they start something... you can bet the big guns are coming out. I'm not affraid to threaten someone with a lawsuit. I got that from my mom. heart  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Thankfully, I don't have a problem with that. I don't wear my pentacle anymore, but that's mainly becasue the chain broke and I lost it. The actual pentacle is sitting on my desk. I may put it back on, but for now I'm content with my feather necklace. It was a gift, and if I have them both on, they get tangled.

Never had any problems with it though. I had one guy look at it, ask "Are you Wiccan?" I said yes, and he said that a couple of his friends were also Wiccan. Then, there will be the fun times when you see someone else with a pentacle, and wish them a happy Yule, or whatever holiday is appropriate. Or just complement the piece and it's all good.  

[WebenBanu]

I don't have much of a problem at work- but I'm not really the type to advertise my religious beliefs to the general public, so I doubt that anyone really knows that I'm anything other than a quirky Egyptophile (though if they're really paying attention, they might suspect^_~). To me, religion is more of a private matter, and I rarely hold forth on the subject unless asked. Many aspects of my work (and life in general) hold deep religious significance for me, but it's not the sort of thing that would really affect anyone else- or the performance of my duties- so I don't feel the need to tell my co-workers or clients about it. I'm not so keen on the idea of publicizing the existence of the Kemetic faith simply on principle, either, which is what I think that many Pagans are going after when they try to show their pride at work.

Many folks seem to feel that if more people knew about us, then we'd have an easier time and be more accepted. I'm not sure that I agree- no matter how many of us there are, the religions which preach against following other religions will continue to do so, and we'll end up right back where we started. The important thing, therefore, is to show up for each voting session and maintain a reasonable amount of political interest and support for basic and general freedom of religion. In doing this, discrimination on the basis of religion in any form can still be dealt with as needed- and you don't open yourself (or anyone else) up for needless questioning or concern from an antagonistic tradition.

This brings up another point- in most cases, I dislike fielding questions on my religion while at work or similar day-to-day settings, as 99 times out of 100 the person who asks doesn't really have anything more than a passing curiosity. They aren't going to seriously consider what we talk about, or apply it to their life, so why should I bother going through all the trouble of explaining it? They're just looking for a time-killer, a cheap thrill, or a game to amuse themselves for a while. However, it often requires a good bit of background knowledge to really understand the implications of spiritual teaching, and they tend to lose interest before going very far- or they veer the conversation off course before I get to where I'm going. I simply don't find it helpful to waste that kind of time and energy on someone who isn't truly interested in the subject to begin with- especially at a place like work, where I'm generally trying to get something else done.^_^' The main exception to this rule is when I'm online; that's where a lot of people who are looking for information on a given subject begin their search. If they manage to find me in all the wide web, then they're much more likely to be looking for the kinds of things which I have to tell them.^_^ And in that case, I will gladly share whatever I have the time and resources to tell.

On the other side of the scale, when religions start to go "mainstream" they also start to become commercialized. While I don't mean offense to any of our Wiccan members, I think that Wicca is a prime example of this- what has happend in the Wiccan community was what really opened my eyes to the phenomenon, in fact. When I was Wiccan, I used to participate in religious rights activist organizations, and wear my pentacle with pride- I even made a point of having it visible during charity work in order to increase good public relations between the Wiccan and wider public communities. And then the onslaught began- fads and do-it-yourselfer trads springing up overnight, fluffy best-seller books, and people whose main participation in the religion seemed to be the wearing of witchy accessories, keychains, and bumper stickers- and complaining about the persecution that it gained them (sometimes, before it even ever happened!O_o).>_< By the time that I found the Kemetic community, I was thoroughly convinced that I did not want it to become too widely known, that it was better to have a small but sincere following of people who were there because they'd done their research and sought us out- rather than coming across it while window-shopping for their next personal fantasy. We still get people like that, but there are far fewer, in my experience- and most of them don't want to put in the effort to go recon, so they end up filtering back into non-Kemetic but Egyptian-flavoured expressions of Pagandom.  

[WebenBanu]

So looking back on that last post, it turned out to be mostly a tangental rant- oops! redface It's unfortunate that you had such an unpleasant experience with that customer- I do sympathize with how annoying that can be. sad On the other hand, wearing religious symbols or slogans in a place which was not set up to house them does tend to open people up to those kinds of experiences. That woman didn't set out for Wal-Mart because she was looking for a Pagan to annoy, but she was annoyed by something which popped up and pushed her buttons. It's not the best of things to have happened on either end, certainly, but it's not really unexpected either. If it's important to you to wear Pagan-themed clothing, then this is just something which will be encountered every now and then. sad Christians get it too, believe it or not- especially when they happen across a moody Pagan, or a randomly outspoken atheist. Remember- just because other people are wearing religious pins doesn't mean that you're the only one who catches unfavorable comments about it.^_^'

Personally, I find that a good way to get around this is by wearing jewelry which suggests religious interests without explicitly spelling it out. For instance, I have a pair of earrings which are small brass hoops with some brass rods which hang from the hoops- they resemble Akhenaten's sun disk in a way, with the outstretched solar arms/rays. I'm not a fan of Akhenaten, but I don't have a problem with the Atn (the solar disk, and a god in His own right) and my main two goddesses are solar in nature (associated with the light and heat of the sun- basically, those rays hanging down from the solar disk). I've offered one of the earrings to each of Them. So, to me they symbolize the supervision and loving, outreaching arms of my Mothers. I also have a sacred cat pendent, and people generally just assume that I really like cats (I do^_~)- I don't have to tell them that I wear it because one of my main goddesses takes feline form, or that cats are Her sacred animal. There are other such things that can be done, and even explicit religious symbols and amulets can be protected by wearing them under the shirt, or tucked into a pocket.

Anyway, I hope that your day today was more pleasant.^_^