Ask a Manager: Failed Religious Training At Work

[minoanmiss]

https://www.askamanager.org/2025/07/religious-training-at-work-asking-for-naps-as-an-accommodation-and-more.html

1. Proselytizing religious training at work

I work at an education institution where over half of our student body follow a religion that is otherwise a minority in our region. Our students have been advocating for training for staff to combat and help recognize prejudice against this religion, and this finally happened a few weeks ago. However, I had major issues with the training, which was delivered by someone selected by a panel of students. The information they shared had a heavy tone of proselytizing (talking about why this religion is actually more moral/ethical than other belief systems, and thus people who follow it are likewise more moral/behave better than other people). They suggested that it’s discriminatory to be a secular workplace and to not allow devout students/staff to openly practice and talk about their beliefs.

Obviously, there are elements of this that are true: you can’t ban wearing religious garb or taking time off for religious holidays in the name of a secular workplace, but I found it very uncomfortable and inappropriate to suggest that wanting a workplace to be largely free of religion is discriminatory. I’m struggling with how to express my discomfort with this, as I get the sense a lot of my colleagues think it’s our duty, as staff who are not part of this religion, to take whatever training we’ve been given at face value, and given there are already difficult power dynamics in play when most of the staff don’t share the beliefs of these students. I also know that this training isn’t going to materially impact our actual policies, so maybe it isn’t worth saying anything at all. Is there any way to raise my discomfort, and is it worth trying?

If there were things in the training that were factually inaccurate about employers’ legal obligations, you should definitely raise that; your institution presumably doesn’t want trainings where objectively incorrect info is being given out.

But I can’t quite tell if that was the case. Whether or not it’s true that employers have to allow staff to openly practice and discuss their religious beliefs depends on the specifics of what “openly practice and discuss” means. Does that mean unwelcome proselytizing to colleagues (which is something that employers cannot allow)? Allowing a bible study group to operate while people are supposed to be working? (They can legally prohibit that.) Giving people time to pray if they’re supposed to pray at a certain time of day? (Must be allowed.) Or just openly talking about their beliefs and practices? (Must be allowed in most cases.) So it depends on exactly what was said at the training.

The proselytizing was inappropriate regardless, but whether to raise that probably depends on how flagrant it was (as well as, realistically, how much capital it will take to push back).