I spend my days helping people, and I have noticed that some people want to use expressions that I consider unwelcome or inappropriate. Such as:
There’s probably more, but I can’t recall them at the moment.
Look, you don’t know me. You don’t know how I feel about “blessings.” This language is too intimate. I’m a stranger doing my job. “Thank you” serves the purpose just fine.
I’m not going to say this to you, obviously, but just read this and know this.
I’m in the same boat as you, and it used to bother me, but I’ve learned to let it go. If they want to bless me, and it makes them feel good, that’s fine. I answer, “you’re welcome,” and get on with my life.
Sometimes when something terrible happened, people would pray for me. I never asked anyone to pray for me, but praying is just wishing, and if someone wants to wish for me, that’s fine. As Larry David once said, praying doesn’t work. When asked how he knew, he pointed to his bald head.
I usually answer the “have a blessed day” people with something like “May the ultimate god Zeus smile upon your fortunes.”
IMO it’s important to push back at their implicit assumption that everyone, including you, believes in their version of religion. As with pushing back at political loudmouths, your silence gives them explicit consent and implied unanimity. Don’t do that.
I don’t think my employer would appreciate my unnecessarily creating tension with a customer.
I had a co-worker who was an in your face Atheist. This lady would always say, “God Bless you” when we finished a transaction for her. He finally told her, “Stop that I don’t like it.” Oddly she stopped and didn’t complain.
I’m a bit more of a live and let live, passive aggressive Atheist. I always want to say, “Blessed be” but I haven’t had the guts yet.
Same here. I’m in retail so I hear all that a lot. My reaction to ‘have a blessed day’ or ‘god bless you’ or whatever, just a 'thanks’ish sounding noise as I’m walking away.
As an employer, I’d have a problem with employees pushing back against something as innocuous as ‘have a blessed day’. Don’t get me wrong, if they push back against the ones handing out pamphlets or nagging other customers that’s different (but they usually come get me for those things), but a simple ‘god bless you’, yeah, just let it go. Besides, I think the vast majority of people saying it are saying it because it’s just what they say (like thank you or good night), not that they really mean anything by it. Just like if I say ‘good night’, I don’t really care if you have a good night nor am I instructing you to do so.
Most people in retail can probably confirm this, but if you look at the range of things customers will say, ‘have a blessed day’ is about as neutral as it gets. I mean, I’d rather hear ‘have a nice day’, but I don’t really care all that much one way or the other and customers say objectively shittier things on a regular basis anyway.
That’s me too, mostly. Which is why I offer the equivalent of a blessing in return, rather than a “Stop that!”
Non-Xians may be a majority (barely) in this country, but they’re a very silent, and therefore very invisible, majority. Who may pay grievously for their silence over the coming years. Gentle pushback is good; in your face-ism isn’t.
What do you do if you sneeze in a public place and someone nearby says “God bless you!”? While I agree with your sentiment to push back on religious assumptions, I also feel there is a better time and place to spend that energy.
I remember my dad was volunteering with his local housing project and one of the volunteers next to him blurted out at him from nowhere “I am here because God told me to be here!”, and he responded “I am here because I am a human being” and they both just went about their work.
I’m agnostic/atheist and I use those expressions from time to time, I respond kindly to such thanks, I use greetings invoking Krishna sometimes, I say salaam alekhum, etc. It’s all good to me.
Eh, bless you when you sneeze is sort of a knee jerk habit with no real “religion” in it for a lot of people. I don’t say it, but whatever, I say “scat” (it’s a family thing.) I get funny looks, but that sort of sums up my life anyway. 
I agree that people need to quit assuming that everyone believes the way they do. Everyone I work with knows my views, so I don’t have a problem with them. Customers though? Religion, politics, yeesh! Give me a break.
We say “scat!” too, but only to babies, because it makes them laugh.
My mom has recently taken up “have a blessed day”. I imagine she thought nothing of it at first, but (after being around her for an extended period), I let her know that some people would find it offensive. After that she continued to do it passive-aggressively.
I used to be a quiet atheist. I noticed the god people becoming more “in your face” over time and have responded in kind.
Could you get away with an “allahu akbar” response?
I can understand the “blessings” comment because I can see how it might annoy you if you are an atheist. However, considering a comment like, “I appreciate you”, to be “too intimate” seems super sensitive to me. People naturally appreciate those who help them, so saying as much seems quite appropriate to me.
It gives me the creeps. It’s something you say to someone when you know the person intimately and you are making a very personal affirmation: I appreciate you. It’s something that therapists encourage couples say to each other. A stranger can’t appreciate me, because e doesn’t know me in this limited interaction we are having. Indeed, if you got to know anything about me, you might not appreciate me at all. Just say thanks if what you mean is thanks.
Seems to me that the statement “Have a blessed day” has at most a 2% chance of meaning “Let me see if I can shove some religion down your throat” and thus a very high probability of being benign. I thus think a mild response that includes no pushback is quite obviously the sensible choice.
It may or may not be an intended shove, but it’s still built on the assumption that all of us are Christians. People need to understand that not everyone believes, thinks, feels, etc. the same thing they do. I consider it mildly rude, entitled, and clueless. YMMV of course. I have yet to answer back, but it does irritate me.
It bothers me when people, usually bus drivers, say Have a good day.
I take it like its an order, and if I don’t, I’ve failed them. See ya would be nice. My reply to have a good day is always, I’ll try…!
Wow, I say that to everyone. It’s my go to customer service farewell. We are specifically instructed to, “Smile and offer a friendly send off”. I’ve done it for so long now, I say it to service people who I’ve finished a transaction with. It never occurred to me that anyone would be bothered/offended by, “Have and nice/good day.”
I’d like to add, I’m not ordering anyone to do anything. I’m wishing them a good day. No I don’t say “I hope you have a good day”, however, I think it’s implied. At least it is when I say it and I assume it when others say it to me.
Yeah, it’s been a standard farewell in business transactions since probably the 1940s or 1950s?