I’m glad it’s not my company, but I am assuming it’s like a real estate agent or REALTOR™, they advertise with their face, whether we want to see it or not. I hope theirs is but an isolated incident and doesn’t become de rigeur
Its not the word blessed. Its specifically the phrase “Have a blessed day”. It is something I had never heard until just a few years ago. It is very specifically a Christian phrase. I have never heard it from anyone who isn’t a Christian.
Maybe us heathen Northerners just appreciate professionalism more. :rolleyes:
What makes it unprofessional if it’s not offensive? It’s certainly not rude. I don’t think it’s immature or pushy. What is it about “have a blessed day” that makes it cross a line that “bless you” after a sneeze does not?
It’s unprofessional because it’s about personal stuff, about one’s beliefs. “Bless you” after a sneeze is a habit, and it’s spoken. “Have a blessed day”, especially when it’s written, or otherwise recorded, is a deliberate statement of faith.
I don’t want to know about someone’s faith if I’m doing business with him/her.
Yup!
And, as I said, I don’t believe that most Christians are like that at all. I was raised Catholic, I know plenty of Christians, and most are just plain ol’ normal people.
But every once in a while I come across someone who uses their faith in a decidedly non-Christian way, and I know better than to mention my gay cousin to them, or casually mention that I don’t go to church. In my experience, people who are going to take offense at those things are the same people who go out of their way to let everyone know how Christian they are, be it by “Blessings!” at the end of an email or prayers before eating lunch or recruiting for their prayer group meetings.
Am I going to go out of my way to automatically assume they’re horrible, judgmental people? No. But I am going to be careful about what I say around them, and I sure as heck will wish that they’d just have kept their religion out of the workplace.
Exactly my thoughts. Hell, I say “bless you” when my girlfriend sneezes. I’m probably best described as agnostic and she is an atheist. Its just an ingrained habit that has, for the most part, lost its religious meaning. The other is a deliberate statement of faith. I am not anti-religious. I have no problem with someone who wants to use the phrase in personal interactions. It does not belong in business transactions.
Dude, I can think of LOTS of things that are unprofessional but not offensive. Let’s all chime in, shall we? I’ll start:
- wearing tons of plastic jewelry while working at, say, a bank
- wearing a too-short skirt
- having a loud radio blaring at your desk
- leaving the radio blaring when you leave for lunch
- telling everyone the TMI details of your latest colonoscopy adventures
- chewing with your mouth wide open
Who’s next?
But putting “Have a blessed day” on a work email isn’t just being a Christian. It’s putting your alleged Christianity on display in an inappropriate environment, which isn’t indicative of truly being a Christian. I don’t know that I can adequately explain it to you, since real Christians tend to see only the best side of the CINO’s and tend to give folks the benefit of the doubt anyway. But I’ll give it a shot.
There are real Christians who actually do their best to live a Christ-like life, and there are Christians in name only who think as long as they plop their ass in a pew a couple times a week, they’re good to go, no matter how little true Christian love and charity they have in their hearts and minds. People in the first camp typically don’t go around talking about their faith, because they’re busy living it. They’ll mention that they’re going to church if you invite them somewhere on a Sunday or Wednesday, or mention that the trip they’re going on is with their church group, sure, but they don’t go around making a big production out of it. The second group talks about their faith. A LOT. They’ll make sure people know they fall in the church door every time it opens…and be miserable bastards to people they judge to be “lesser” than them because those people aren’t good church-going folks like themselves.
To put it in tangible terms, I’ll use the after-church crowd at Cracker Barrel as an example (I used to wait tables there ages ago.) The first group are the ones who would be dressed up enough you could tell they’d likely come from church, or you might overhear them talking about the sermon as you approached the table, or see them bowing their heads after you put down the plates. They were usually really nice and tipped respectably if not well. The second group are the ones who were covered in cross jewelry, carried their Bibles into the dining room with them, and prayed loud enough you could clearly hear them a table or two over. I’d rather live on the street than wait on those people again, they were so horrible, not that waiting on them would do much to keep you off the street. Rude, demanding, snotty, and prone to leaving you two shiny quarters and a religious pamphlet printed so the cover looked like a folded ten-dollar bill. Butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths if they ran into someone from church, though.
It’s not 100%, but there’s IME a pretty damn strong correlation between someone bringing their religion into a situation where it’s not relevant (like “have a blessed day” in a work email) and being in the second camp.
Although, as email signatures go, that one is kind of great.
Thank you, Athena and Miss CatLady. And I feel compelled to note that my work email signature contains merely my name, department, and phone number. 
In fact, the Bible (NIV in this case) has some choice words about people who proclaim their faith in public:
Meh. It’s borderline unprofessional but nothing to get worked up about.
Rules almost universally broken by the Christian sects…and they all have ready-made excuses as to what it really means and why it doesn’t apply to their sect.
OK now I’m feeling all defensive for the Blessed Cheesemaker title I’ve got going on right now. For anyone interested in how my silly mind works, I was thinking of my role as a peacemaker as a moderator here when someone asked me about a decision, and that led me to remember some old joke about someone mishearing a reading of the Beatitudes; i.e., blessed are the peacemakers was misheard as blessed are the cheesemakers. My sister recently visited Australia, where she made cheese using buffalo milk (really!) so I had cheesemaking on the brain, rather than Jesus and sermons and whatnot.
Really, thinking up a good pun (or something makes me laugh anyway) makes may day just about as quick as someone telling me to have a blessed day. Hey, I take the joy where I can find it.
I think Victoria Secret employees are instructed to use this sig. 
I think it’s also important to note that obnoxious so-called Christians are the most in-your-face about it, which can make it easier to forgot that 99% of Christians are good people, or at least okay people. It’s not much different from people assuming that all Trekkies are the people who take it over the top and have Betazoid weddings and learn Klingon, because those are the ones that stick in your mind.
And I wouldn’t worry about your title. I at least, enjoy a good pun, and evidence suggests most Dopers do too.
Sometimes I run across people (street preachers and such) who want to read their Bible at me. I scratch my chin, and look thoughtful, and say something on the order of “I’ve always been fond of Matthew 6, why don’t you start there?”
Yes, yes, I’m an evil person. And I enjoy being evil.
As for the Blessed Cheesemaker, I think that’s just a little joke, and most of the mod staff have some sort of joke title.
Dude, I didn’t say it has to be offensive to be unprofessional. Had you read past the first sentence of my post, you may have noticed that I also qualified rude, immature and pushy behavior as unprofessional. Those pretty much cover the things you listed.
I usually don’t include any sort of greeting or ending in work e-mails. You know who you are and you know it’s for you because I SENT it to you. Similarly, chances are if I’m sending you an e-mail, you know who I am. I will sometimes put my name and some relevant information at the end if it’s more formal or may be going to people who don’t necessarily know who I am.
That all said, I don’t see why “have a blessed day” is inappropriate. It’s no different than saying “have a good day” except from someone who is likely Christian or otherwise religious. It’s not forcing their beliefs on anyone, it’s just that their beliefs will have some affect on how they say things. Even if you aren’t an atheist, how is it in anyway offense to learn that someone else isn’t?
“Have a sexy day” is from someone who likes sex.
“Have a Disney day” is from someone who likes Disneyland.
“Have a flame-broiled day” is from someone who likes Burger King.
“Have a cromulent day” is from someone who likes the Simpsons.
None of those are particularly business-like to me (except for someone who works in a Christian bookstore, or a sex shop, or Disneyland, or Burger King, or on the Simpsons, I suppose).
It’s unprofessional and ubiquitous; I just got a wrong number that apologized and wished me a blessed day.