[QUOTE=Athena]
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that in my experience, anyone who is into religion enough to proselytize at work is not going to respond well to anyone telling him his proselytizing is not welcome, no matter how well put it is. I think if the OP brings this up at all, and it gets back to Religo-guy, it’s gonna be bad for the OP.
Maybe you don’t get religious nutters where you are, sandra_nz, but 'round here, you pretty much just want to stay away from them as much as possible.
[/QUOTE]
Of course I’ve encountered religious nutters, they aren’t limited to the US. :dubious: Also, note that I’m suggesting the OP goes to the Religo-guy to say ‘hey, i understand you put this on my desk, please don’t do this again, ok?’. I don’t understand your point of it getting back to the Religo-guy when I’m suggesting she goes straight to him.
[QUOTE=Jeeves]
See, I don’t like people using their power over others to proselytize. I think that if more people spoke up, then this kind of behavior would be less tolerated. I just talked to my supervisor, and he told me that I am not the first person to be annoyed by this behavior, and that he is a minister and does this several times a year. My supervisor told me that it probably would not be a problem if I talked to the proselytizer, but I probably wouldn’t be able to get out of having a conversation with him about religion, and he probably wouldn’t stop anyway.
Since I really don’t want to get into a conversation with this guy, and I don’t want to talk to the BB about it, I am going to drop it.
Then, when I am the boss, I will put athiesm tracts on the underlings desks
[/QUOTE]
I think that’s wise. There is the principle of the thing and there is the reality. The principle of the thing is “this is inappropriate and you should stand up against it” To do that, you copy the perpritrator (if you KNOW they are the one who left it) and their boss and whatever passes for HR. Then you wait because shit will hit the fan, and be ready to lose your job, get lousy reviews, get hounded out of your position, get laid off. The reality is “throw it in the trash and roll your eyes” unless you can afford to take the stand.
[QUOTE=sandra_nz]
Of course I’ve encountered religious nutters, they aren’t limited to the US. :dubious: Also, note that I’m suggesting the OP goes to the Religo-guy to say ‘hey, i understand you put this on my desk, please don’t do this again, ok?’. I don’t understand your point of it getting back to the Religo-guy when I’m suggesting she goes straight to him.
[/QUOTE]
I’m just saying that if it gets to him, either through going straight to him, or through a more circuitous route, I don’t think it’s going to be good. I’m with Dangerosa. Stuff like this never ends well, and given that the OP is a very junior employee, I’d expect the company to simply get rid of him if he causes problems.
A letter on my desk like this would upset me. It is over the top preachy and intolerant.
If only it were this easy. You could just state that you have had sex and are no longer able to get to heaven, so any further intervention would be unnecessary and unproductive.
What would I really do? Ignore it. If it gets worse then maybe do something. Why risk your job because of some other nut?
[QUOTE=Jeeves]
See, I don’t like people using their power over others to proselytize. I think that if more people spoke up, then this kind of behavior would be less tolerated. I just talked to my supervisor, and he told me that I am not the first person to be annoyed by this behavior, and that he is a minister and does this several times a year. My supervisor told me that it probably would not be a problem if I talked to the proselytizer, but I probably wouldn’t be able to get out of having a conversation with him about religion, and he probably wouldn’t stop anyway.
[/QUOTE]
That’s a crappy supervisor.
What gets me about that line, is that I am gay, and it is pretty much impossible for me to have sex inside of marriage.
Of course, I don’t think he knows that. The rest of the office does, but I have never had a conversation with him where non-work came up, and the rest of the office doesn’t talk to him much either. If he did know, I might have to put up with more bullshit stuff.
[QUOTE=cher3]
Personally, I’d just ignore it. At this point it’s at about the same level as someone passing around a Girl Scout cookie order form.
<snip>
[/QUOTE]
No, it really isn’t. People don’t go to war over Girl Scouts.
I hate to advise you to just ignore something that obnoxious, Jeeves, but I guess the bottom line is the outcome - what action will get you the best outcome? I think throwing the pamphlet in the garbage now is good, and if he proselytizes to you in person, tell him you’re not interested and walk away. Workplace proselytization should not be tolerated, and in a lot of places it wouldn’t be, but it doesn’t sound like you work in one of those places. No, wait, don’t throw it away, and document every little bit of proselytization he does - you might need it in your hostile work environment suit when he finds out you’re gay and goes on a mission to make your life miserable.
[QUOTE=featherlou]
No, it really isn’t. People don’t go to war over Girl Scouts.
[/QUOTE]
Obviously, you’ve never been down to your last sleeve of Thin Mints.
I meant that right now all the guy has done is distribute pamphlets, and apparently in a pretty general way–not just to the OP.
I do agree, though, that his being gay probably means that he should be more careful to document things if they continue or become more pointedly addressed to him.
I agree. A supervisor is required by law to handle harassment complaints quickly and thoroughly. Telling you to suck it up is just asking for trouble.
I wouldn’t say anything, but document this occurence and if happens again. Also document that your supervisor told you to let it go. Then, if it gets worse, go to the next level.
I personally don’t have the patience for that kind of bullshit in the office.
I had two people who constantly sent me religious emails. At first I just rolled my eyes and deleted them. Apparently my silence was a cue for them to continue with their prosyletizing and witnessing. Then I thought to myself that as an unwavering atheist I have never once spread my anti-religious diatribe around the office. So I went to them individually and asked them to please stop sending me these emails. The one guy apologized and hasn’t sent one since. The other guy got pissy and continued to send them. I responded, via email, with a rather offensive joke at the expense of his religion. He sent a flaming email about how much he was offended, blah blah blah. I didn’t respond. The prosyletizing stopped.
Well, it gets more interesting. I found out at lunch that he only put it on two people’s desk, me and the guy who sits behind me. Why us, I have no idea. I am not sure why he would single us out as heathens, especially since the guy who sits behind me is in the office less than 10 hours a week, and has never worked with preachy guy as far as I know.
Who knows what goes on in this guys head. I still haven’t decided to ignore it, becuase it freaking rankles. At the same time, do I really want the trouble? It is a lot easier to ignore him.
[QUOTE=Jeeves]
Well, it gets more interesting. I found out at lunch that he only put it on two people’s desk, me and the guy who sits behind me. Why us, I have no idea. I am not sure why he would single us out as heathens, especially since the guy who sits behind me is in the office less than 10 hours a week, and has never worked with preachy guy as far as I know.
Who knows what goes on in this guys head. I still haven’t decided to ignore it, becuase it freaking rankles. At the same time, do I really want the trouble? It is a lot easier to ignore him.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe you’re the only two who haven’t told him to STFU?
I’d love to have a conversation with him. But if you don’t, you can go to him and tell him to knock it off. If he starts a conversation, you can say you’re not interested and leave. If he follows you, you can tell him to stop bothering you in public.
On the other hand, considering how they’re making right wing Republican fundamentalists these days, maybe he knows you’re gay and is after you. (some smiley should go here, I’m not sure which.)
[QUOTE=Jeeves]
At the same time, do I really want the trouble? It is a lot easier to ignore him.
[/QUOTE]
If telling someone that they are behaving unprofessionally in the workplace causes trouble, I question what you are going to learn there as an intern. Simply saying “Thanks but this makes me uncomfortable, please don’t raise this subject with me” should not cause a problem in the office. This is part of the internship, learning how to stand up for yourself.
Oh, come on. No one is more anti-religious and anti-proselyzation than I am, and I would just throw it in the trash. I might not even take the time to crumple it up first.
You are getting paid to work, not to sit around fuming and plotting revenge, right?
ETA: It just occurred to me that perhaps you should rather obviously cast a circle of protection around your desk…
