There is a level of hypocrisy about religion going on here which I find highly distasteful.
Chris, you're going to continue to see things as long as you look at the discussion we're having here from a religion-centric perspective rather than from a management/ethical/legal perspective.
The complete set of employee categories protected against discrimination and harassment is as follows: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, parental status, and protected genetic information. I don't see rape or cancer victims on that list. If you're going to give an equivalent example, posit the boss holding sessions with able-bodied white men, not cancer victims.
Ashcroft is singling out a category on that list, religion, AND he is giving his attention not to the minority component but to the dominant religion. A better case could be made for his holding sessions on the Koran. At least that way he'd be supporting the minority side of the equation rather than the dominant side.
FYI, employers collect employee data on only four of those categories: race, gender, age, and disability. The others are considered too personal to even request from the individual. Of the four recorded, the disability record is of very poor quality because, although they are asked, most of the disabled don't report their disability because they consider it too personal. Members of minority religions are entitled to take leave on their holy days but they rarely ask for it because they don't want their religion on record. Because it's personal. It hasn't been that long that race data has been collected and the way it's been collected over the years has changed many times because of the sensitivity of collecting it at all. Race is now self reported by the employee--and some refuse to provide it or report bogus information in protest. There's the Privacy Act to deal with confidentiality of this information. You can define personal any way you want, but be aware that there is an official definition and it ain't yours.
Karen |
