Two years ago, Washington Post Magazine “Work Advice” columnist Karla L. Miller lectured at a questioner asking about a trans woman using the women’s room:
Barbara [who was formerly Bob] is not Tootsie or Bugs Bunny or any other caricature of a male in drag trying to game the system; she is, in all respects relevant to her co-workers, a woman.
That’s true regardless of whether she goes under the knife; OPM adds that transitioning workers do not have to undergo surgery to gain access to the men’s or women’s room.
Miller also consulted activist Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality for a sneer at the reader: “We built a secret lab at NCTE, we’re trying to invent a transgender person who doesn’t have to use the bathroom.”
That’s not exactly the way Miller tackled today’s question, headlined “Is prayerful boss acting in good faith?”
Reader: I work for a large nonprofit — tax-exempt, but not faith-based. Our new supervisor is a conservative Christian who formerly worked for a faith-based organization and is open in the workplace about his beliefs.
At his first staff meeting, he asked us to go around the table and declare our value system. He led with: God, country, family, work. In his office, he keeps a Bible on his desk and frequently rests his hand on it when asked to make a decision. Some staff have reported interrupting him praying in his office during work hours. In the middle of the day, he streams a right-wing conservative radio show. If you are scheduled to meet with him at that time, you cannot avoid listening to it.
Many of us are uncomfortable. Are his actions permissible?
Karla began her reply: "Are you sure he’s praying? When I’m bent over my keyboard muttering sacred names, it means something quite different."
Miller turned to labor expert Jonathan Segal, who said I don’t think you can — or should — keep faith entirely out of the workplace...Where people get into trouble is when they proselytize.” That's true -- when you're proselytizing religion -- and not true if you're preaching LGBT equality.
Miller concluded: "Your boss’s behavior to date doesn’t seem to rise to the hostile work environment level, even if it skews politically to the right of your comfort zone. But as the boss, he should be mindful of appearances. For example, touching his Bible might simply help him focus — but, Segal points out, that gesture could be interpreted as a “link between faith and decision-making” and possibly cited as evidence of religious bias if the decision has an adverse effect on someone who doesn’t share the boss’s beliefs. And if the boss starts insisting everyone join hands and bow heads before a meeting, or if your annual performance review feels more like a religious inquisition, hie thee to HR."
So to sum up: a boss who asks people to pray in the office is an HR nightmare; a man who wants to use the women's bathroom is not.
Miller also suggested the reader ask the conservative boss to mute the right-wing radio show when they meet, and then this suggestion:
Or perhaps he could walk in one day and find his Bible opened and marked with a sticky note at Matthew 6:5 (“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.”).
To a Christian, this is a good instruction from the mouth of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. You're supposed to love God for God's sake, not for the sake of appearances. But when wielded by Christian-bashers, it implies demonstrations of faith (especially when accompanied by conservative talk radio) are suspicious.
PS: I often check out a journalist's Twitter timeline as an attitude check, and I received quite a bit of attitude. Miller insisted to her Twitter followers that the Bible citation was all her idea, since her expert Segal is Jewish. I wrote to her “It's funny that you'd lecture someone to accept a trans woman, but counsel starting a fight about hypocrisy with the Christian.” And then I noticed quite a few Cecil the Lion tweets and retweets, so I added “For hypocrisy, you might try looking at your own pro-lion timeline but saying nothing about fetal organ harvesting.” This was her reply, complete with F-bomb headline:
Wow.
This is from the woman who advises people how to behave in the workplace, isn't it?
