Research Paper
Religious Discrimination at the Workplace
Religious discrimination occurs when people are treated differently in their work area due to their religious beliefs and associated activities. The employees may also face the same while requesting accommodation for their religious practices and tool. Discrimination also involves treating other people poorly in an employment place due to their lack of religious practices or beliefs. The law protects those who belong to some organized religions such as Jewish, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims, as well as other people with religious and ethical beliefs (Vickers, 2016). This kind of discrimination results in hatred, lack of cooperation, and low productivity of an organization, and so, the society should look forward to ensuring that all employees are equally treated to enhance a good environment through which organizations achieve their common goals.
Employees may face religious discrimination during the hiring period whereby those individuals belonging to a certain religion, or believe in some practices tend to be given the job opportunities as the non-believers are denied such a chance. Also, the individuals that do not match religion with an organization's manager ten to be denied the job opportunities too (Vickers, 2016) The individuals that also contrast with others' faith while in operation may end up being fire or they are not given their full pays for salary. Others are also denied individual advantages such as promotions and holidays, due to the differences in beliefs, hence causing discrimination, as the management gives the people belonging to a specific religion the best while others are suffering.
Also, during operation in organizations, individuals belonging to a particular religion such as Christianity may be given good environmental conditions through which they can operate and be productive throughout their employment period, as people belonging to other religions such as SDA may be given or denied such terms. Therefore, the SDA employees end up getting ill or operating poorly, hence leading to the production of low-quality goods as expected. For instance, the Christian employees may be given cool temperate rooms through which they can withstand when the temperatures are generally high, as the SDA employees may be left in places that are not ceiled, and this may result to poor health on these employees as they may have cancer due to direct penetration of sun rays into their bodies through the skin (Ghumman et al., 2013, p. 444). Again, the physical practices of some religions may limit them from getting jobs such as dressing, meals, and greetings language. For instance, most Rastafarians tend to be denied job opportunities due to wearing dreadlocks, and this may leave most of the religious members unemployed due to discrimination.
Other individuals are harassed while in their job places, and this may lower their self-esteem towards their religion, as others leave their jobs. Some religions may demand an individual to violate their dress code, and as a result, an individual may get fired. For instance, in those organizations that require ladies to wear trousers, they may not be favorable for a Muslim lady, which results in discrimination through which Muslims will not have access to such opportunities. In other cases, Muslim men are also denied going to their workplaces with their hijabs; thus, they may be treated poorly if they violate the rule or end up fired from the opportunity (Ghumman et al., 2013, p. 448). This happens when the employees belonging to a particular religion may not be promoted to a higher position in a company, which makes the discriminated individual feel hated and unworthy of the position. Other Christians are also denied the chance to go to their workplaces with Bibles, and this makes them feel uncomfortable while operating in the company, as they do not enjoy the freedom of religion.
Most companies also do not accommodate other religions. For instance, a company that is run by Muslims will not accommodate the individuals belonging to Christianity, and this leads to th limitation if the productivity of a company, as it only produces what is good for fellow Muslims, without considering how the company can get Christian customers by accommodating some as well as their practices (Huang, Chi-Chen, & Kleiner, 2001). Fo instance, Muslim ladies do not expose their hair to people, and so, the companies that have a salon in them should include a secret room for the Muslims, which is not practiced by most companies, hence leading to discrimination or other people’s religion, leading to poor performance. Also, a multi-religious company is expected to provide worship rooms or parks for the different religions' members, which does not occur in most companies as they ten to offer the rooms and halls for the religions with many members, hence discriminating that which has few members.
Religious discrimination does not only occur between the management and employees, but it also occurs between managers and employees separately. For instance, a manager may assume or fail to consult a director or the supervisor of a company because of the religious differences, which may then result to failures or poor performance, This holds back the achievement of a company due to lack of cooperation and sharing or ideas, which also hinders innovation and invention plans hence slowing down the progress of the company. Also, employees may be discriminative over their colleagues that belong to different religions from theirs, and this discourages them from cooperating or sharing resources (Huang, Chi-Chen, & Kleiner, 2001). Additionally, employees belonging to a particular religion may also be discriminated through the work given to them. For instance, in a company, individuals belonging to Christianity may be assigned heavy or many responsibilities, unlike Muslims, while being paid the same amount for different duties. This then causes division in the workplace, as other employees may want to resign from the company, and look or an area where they are treated with equality.
Other managers also speak negatively about other religions or even judging each other due to differences in religious activities. This is illegal, and all employees should be treated equally irrespective of their religion, ethnicity, or status. All employees should also be given equal and fair conditions for their good performance in their respective responsibilities (Ghumman et al., 2013, p. 450). Other employees belonging to particular religions end up being fined in case of a mistake. In contrast, others are not fined or even punished in any way, for instance, Muslims may tend to be fired or fined or reduced their salaries if they fail to attend jobs due to their reasons. At the same time, Christians may be left unquestioned for the same action.
Concerning the dressing of people belonging to different religions, this should not hinder one from accessing the resources of a company or job opportunities as the society is counted as one regardless of the different beliefs that people believe in. Muslim companies should not limit their Christian workers from attending their meetings since this is not a worship section but a company section intended for all individuals regardless of their religious practices (Drobac, Ann, & Wesley, 2013, p. 762). Organizations should be focused on producing the best and avoiding. Also, in such meetings, all employees and managers should be given the same treatment provided they perform their duties effectively. All employees should also be respected and treated equally o ensure that the different religious individuals share knowledge and skills irrespective of what they believe in. Other managers tend to fight individuals from other religions, which makes the different people disagree during operations in the company, hence leading to the business's poor performance.
In conclusion, employees, managers, and society should focus on maintaining equality for all employees an colleagues in a workplace to ensure that they all work towards improving the sales and profits of the company. Differences related to dressing, greetings, diet, and presentation should not hinder a potential employee from being employed, treated with care and respect, being given bonus services by the company or being accommodates as these are directed to all employees, irrespective of their beliefs and practices (Drobac, Ann, & Wesley, 2013, p. 762). Society should also consider following the "Title VII" rule that protects employees from being religiously discriminated against. Employees and managers should not discriminate against people regarding the firing, employment, and hiring activities as this reduces the rate at which the society grows physically and financially.
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