Q: I work in a small office of about 20 highly educated colleagues. We have a friendly congenial work environment. However, one of our co-workers likes to listen to religious preaching all day from a player he keeps on his desk. He’s a good worker and a nice person, but it’s very annoying to the rest of us to have to listen to that stuff all the time. We tried going to our manager, but he doesn’t want to say anything to the employee because he fears being accused of religious discrimination. Any suggestions?
A: Although I can’t blame your manager for his concern, religious discrimination looks very different. Maybe if two employees of different religions were doing the same thing and only one of them was asked to stop, then that might be considered discrimination. But that’s not what’s happening.
Yes, companies with 15-plus employees most provide religious accommodation for an employee’s religious practice or observance (as long as it doesn’t’ cause the business undue hardship), but what you describe doesn’t sound to me like a religious practice or observance. This sounds more like a personal listening preference.
Examples that DO require accommodation might include a schedule change when an employee observes the Sabbath or providing prayer-breaks during the day or offering vegetarian options. But this is not your situation.
This reminds me more of conflicts I often see about what type of music (classical, heavy metal, Christian, country, or rap) or what type of programming employees are allowed to play at their desk. (conservative/liberal, talk-radio, sports radio, 24-horr news). In resolving those complaints it’s helpful if the company has a policy about what’s allowed to be played in the office, and whether earphones are allowed.
But even if you don’t have such a policy, most employees know that listening to music/audio at work is a privilege and the company can revoke it when it determines that it’s interfering with a good, productive work environment.
So your supervisor should be safe asking him to stop listening (or lower the volume, or use headphones) as long as the request is respectful and doesn’t denigrate the employee’s religion, and as long as the request is consistent when other types of distracting music/audio are played.
©Copyright Eva Del Rio
